Calls for Constitutional Conventions

Drive to Require Balanced Federal Budget

Article V of the U.S. Constitution sets out the provisions for proposing amendments to the document. Amendments may be proposed either by a two-thirds vote in Congress or by a convention called at the request of two-thirds (34) of the state legislatures. The second method has not been used to amend the Constitution since the document was drawn up in 1787. But 1979 could possibly be the year the clause is invoked for the first time. Twenty-eight state legislatures have made some kind of formal call for a convention to make a balanced federal budget a constitutional imperative, and 14 have adopted resolutions calling for a convention to write an anti-abortion amendment. The budget-balancing drive, with ...