Constitutional Convention

Typically, the Constitution of the United States is changed through the amendment process. Such amendments require ratification by 34 of the 50 states in order become part of the Constitution. Ratifying an amendment usually proves to be a multi-year process. An alternate way to amend the Constitution is through a Constitutional Convention ("Con-Con"). A Con-Con can be called by a request from at least 34 of the 50 states. While a Con-Con can be called for a specific and limited purpose, once the Con-Con is opened there is no limit to what items can be considered, changed, or incorporated into the Constitution. As of the initial publication of the "Sabbath Software," upon which this web site is based, 32 of the needed 34 states had requested a Con-Con for the purpose of balancing the federal budget. At this time we can look back and see that this effort to call for a Con-Con failed, and Congress has balanced the budget using more mundane means. However, notice that we were within 2 states' request for a Con-Con to be opened. Had 2 more states requested the Con-Con, the entire Constitution would have been opened for review and modification.

Needless to say, many people are concerned about the wisdom of using the Con-Con process to make changes to the Constitution, since there is no modern-day precedence for this method of amending the Constitution, and there is no telling how many or what type of radical changes to our fundamental document would be made. Drastic changes could quickly be made to the religious liberties that the Constitution now provides, sweeping changes which would be difficult or impossible to enact through the normal amendment process. Fortunately, we have not yet had to cross such a bridge.