Article V Conventions and Nullification are NOT mutually exclusive, nor is one the magic pill for all our federal problems. Each is a legitimate Constitutional solution, but each has a different aim and application. Each plan has its inherent problems and there are legitimate concerns that should be considered and dangers guarded against. They can be used together in the defense of Liberty as long as we understand each in its own context and consider the pitfalls involved. It must be noted that we are having this discussion because of the very fact that we have stepped so far out of the Constitutional boundaries given to this government that we are operating practically in a post-Constitutional America. At this point, it is unlikely that any solution will be perfect or without peril.
Two different animals:
Article V Convention is a long term fix aimed at making corrections at the federal level. Nullification is an immediate defense at the state level. Article V aims to make structural changes or further clarifications to the operations of the federal government and its relation to the states by amending the Constitution. Nullification aims to make no changes to the current Constitution, but is simply an assertion by the individual sovereign states of the authority they already possess and a declaration of the limitations to federal power already defined by the Constitution. Article V convention in the current context seeks to fix what is assumed to be broken or lacking in the federal system and is to be used in the rarest of circumstances. Nullification, as intended by the framers, was to be a part of “republican maintenance,” whereby the central government was to be continually kept in check by its masters, the states.
Both have their merits and their dangers. Let us take a look some problems that we should keep in mind so we can work TOGETHER to defeat the common enemy
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