Title: Do we really need Faithful Commissioner Legislation?
Original CoS Document (slug): do-we-really-need-faithful-commissioner-legislation
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Created: 2023-12-10 16:33:28
Updated: 2023-12-15 20:11:00
Published: 2023-12-14 01:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T21:28:30.827657777
With the possibility of an anticipated Article V Convention of States within the commonwealth of Kentucky, the question has been coming up as to proposing a comprehensive Faithful Commissioner Law.
This type of legislation may help ease potential fears once the Article V resolution has passed in Kentucky.
Commissioner laws can be drafted to address pre-convention, convention, and post-convention measures. This will allow citizen activists to be part of the process to help develop and oversee the creation of house and Senate joint committees to add balance to the actions through the convention process.
This joint committee will be the selective body of qualified commissioners. They will set the convention rules and instructions for commissioners. Record convention proceedings, update instructions when needed, conduct post-convention actions, and keep an accurate archive of all convention proceedings. If necessary, recall commissioners if applicable.
Finalize through state legislatures the ratification process, so proposed amendments can be considered, therefore become part of the United States Constitution. Under Article V the ratification method will be chosen by Congress.
Faithful Commissioner Laws may add a sense of security to the process once the resolution has passed. According to well-renowned constitutional scholar and law professor Robert G Natelson it probably really isn’t necessary to invoke such laws. (The below list cited by R.G.N. The Law of Article V)
The state legislatures must understand what their actual role in the process is. That is, they have total control over the Article V process. The only part Congress shall have pre-convention is to name the time and place of the convention and choose the ratification method post-convention.
Legislatures shall conduct:
- Commissioner Selection
- Commissioner Credentialing
- Initial Voting Rules
- Quorum and Majority Vote
- What Officers Should the Convention Have
- How Officers Are Chosen
- How Rules Are Adopted
- Source of Default Rules
- Voting by State(one state, one vote)
- Majority Voting Quorum
- Prayers and Oaths
- Kinds of Committees
- Committee Staffing
- Secrecy, Minutes
- Number of Commissioners on The Floor
- Costs
- Rules of Debate and Decorum
- Order of Business
- Focus on Convention
- Frequency of Length of Speaking
- Motions, Simplifying Complex Questions
- Calls to Order
- Motions to Adjourn
- Decorum on Adjournments for the Day
- Absences, And Sitting of Committees
Assuring Proper Notice of Proposals.
As you have read here the outcome of any convention is in the hands of each state legislature, therefore it would be all but impossible for any nefarious actions to play out due to numerous checks and balances built into the convention process.
A history of forty conventions throughout three hundred years, not even one ever ran away or went off the rails.
So, if there is any fear of an **Article V Convention.** The question is, what is the source of that fear? Because it is not in the process itself.
Brett G 6/9/21