Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made clear his thoughts on Article V of the U.S. Constitution:
The Founders inserted an alternative method of obtaining constitutional amendments because they knew that Congress would be unwilling to have attention to the many issues people are concerned with, particularly those involving restrictions on the federal government's own power.
I do not have any great fear of an open convention since three-quarters of the states have to ratify what comes out of it.
The Founders realized the government would have difficulty regulating itself, particularly if it became corrupted. They added Article V as a way for the people to contain an out-of-control government.
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"They said, Wait. Wait. Wait. We've given all the power to the government to check itself. But what happens if everyone in the government goes bad? We've got to give the power to the people to be able to check them. That's Article V. Get involved. ConventionofStates.com," Glenn said Thursday on his radio program.
Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:
GLENN: Welcome to the program. Do you have Scalia on the Convention of States?
STU: Yeah. They're just quotes, but they're great ones.
GLENN: Okay. I mean, listen to this. So Pat and I were just talking during the break that everybody is always saying, you know, you can't open the Constitution. That's going to lead --
PAT: Haven't you seen what's going on? They're going to grab the guns. They're trying to do that anyway. You can't open up the Constitution.
GLENN: That's not what this is. That's not the way it works. Here's Antonin Scalia on it.
STU: Yeah. He says the Founders inserted an alternative method of obtaining constitutional amendments because they knew that Congress would be unwilling to have attention to the many issues people are concerned with, particularly those involving restrictions on the federal government's own power.
How many times have we talked about this? This is exactly the way to think about this. They're never going to do these things on their own.
PAT: You can't open up the Constitution. Haven't you seen what's going on? They're trying to grab the guns anyway. Now you're going to open up the Constitution.
(laughter)
STU: In any case, I do not have any great fear of an open convention since three-quarters of the states have to ratify what comes out of it.
I mean, right there is -- I mean...
GLENN: You never lose -- even if they could -- even if they could --
PAT: Texas is not going to do something --
GLENN: You're not going to get three-quarters of the states --
PAT: Utah, Indiana --
GLENN: -- to take guns away. You're not.
PAT: You have the block.
STU: Right. And, by the way, you still wouldn't -- you wouldn't do an open convention. So you would have a limited convention.
GLENN: No.
STU: So you would have a limited convention, which is --
PAT: Well, that's why I'm saying, don't have a convention because then you open up the Constitution.
GLENN: I don't know where this person is from. But it's irritating the way they say "Constitution."
PAT: That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying.
JEFFY: Yes.
STU: I mean, you can read the whole thing. I just sent it out @worldofStu on Twitter. It's a great case. And Scalia supported it. He supported the idea of it. And, of course, the Founders supported it.
GLENN: The Founders put it in because they saw this time coming.
PAT: Right.
GLENN: They knew that government would figure out -- it could take money from people and hand it out to all the wrong people.
PAT: There had to be a way to stop that.
GLENN: There had to be a way to stop that. So this is the last thing they put in. And they said, "Wait. Wait. Wait. We've given all the power to the government to check itself. But what happens if everyone in the government goes bad? We've got to give the power to the people to be able to check them." That's Article V. Get involved. ConventionofStates.com.
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