California and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) are planning to repeal the 2023 call for a national constitutional convention, given Donald Trump’s recent victory and the possibility of Republicans proposing their own new amendments.
As Breitbart News reported last June, Newsom called for a constitutional convention to propose amendments to limit the Second Amendment, such as setting a minimum age of 21 for gun possession, and universal background checks.
But there were political obstacles, as Breitbart News noted:
[S]ince a two-thirds vote of Congress is generally required to launch the process of amending the Constitution, it is unclear how Newsom intends to begin if, as he says, Congress is responsible for inaction.
The only alternative route to a constitutional amendment is to hold a convention of the states under Article V of the Constitution, a prospect that conservatives would savor and have been rying to organize for nearly a decade.
Some conservative ideas for amendments include setting the number of Supreme Court justices at nine, to prevent liberal attempts at court-packing; and enshrining the right to life.
In 2013, conservative radio host and litigator Mark Levin published The Liberty Amendments, proposing eleven amendments, including term limits for Congress and a balanced budget amendment to restrict legislative spending.
With a Trump victory — in the popular vote, no less — California Democrats are suddenly getting cold feet.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday on Newsom and the California legislature having second thoughts:
“The damage a Constitutional Convention could do to Californians’ basic rights is off the charts,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener. “Once it begins, extremists could easily hijack it and drive the Convention to strip protections for women, LGBTQ people, workers, immigrants, or any number of other groups, while undermining democracy and locking in the power of the largest corporations on the planet.”
“Constitutional conventions put every right, civil liberty and underlying value of our country at risk,” said Dora Rose, deputy director of the League of Women Voters of California.
…
Wiener’s Senate Joint Resolution 1 would rescind the September 2023 measure, SJR7, that called for a nationwide convention to propose constitutional amendments that would ban gun ownership by anyone under 21, require background checks for all gun purchases and prohibit possession or sale of the semiautomatic firearms known as assault weapons. Any such amendment would then require approval by legislatures in three-fourths of the states.
The number of states that have called for some kind of constitutional convention is 27 — just short of the needed 34.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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