Arizona rescinds constitutional convention calls. (Insider Report).

America has taken another step away from the brink of an Article V constitutional convention. On April 1st, the Arizona House of Representatives approved without dissent a resolution rescinding all of its prior applications to Congress to call a convention for proposing amendments to the U. S. Constitution. The Arizona Senate had previously approved the resolution, also without a dissenting vote.

The Constitution's Article V contains the mechanism whereby Congress must call a convention after receiving applications from the legislatures of two-thirds of the states. At one point, America was precariously close to a convention after 32 of the necessary 34 states had called for it, for the stated purpose of drafting a balanced budget amendment. Few realize that such a convention could not be limited to a single purpose and would allow for dangerous wholesale changes in the Constitution, likely disfiguring it beyond recognition. Expressing concern on this matter in 1988, former Chief Justice of the United States Warren Burger warned: "... there is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention. The Convention could make its own rules and set its own agenda. Congress might try to limit the Convention to one amendment or to one issue, but there is no way to assure that the Convention would obey. After a Convention is convened, it will be too late to stop the Convention if we don't like its agenda."

Arizona's victory came largely because of the efforts of local members of the John Birch Society. JBS member Ron Bruchhauser led the charge by organizing fellow Birchers and other citizen activists in educating legislators about the dangers of a constitutional convention. Stated Bruchhauser, "The effort to rescind should move on to other states in order to increase the margin of safety so as to assure that no convention is called."