Eagle Forum National Constitutional Issues Chairman
Janine Hansen, 775-397-6859, director@nevadafamilies.org
May 19, 2026, In the Year of Our Lord
Rhode Island: Convention of States
HEARING
THURSDAY, May 21, about 4:15pm
HEARING: Senate Judiciary Committee, Room 313 State House
Submit Written Testimony: Written testimony must be submitted prior to 3:00 PM on Thursday, May 21, 2026, in order for it to be provided to the members of the committee at the hearing and to be included in the meeting records. Adriana Carlucci, Committee Clerk, 401-222-2381, SenateJudiciary@
CONTACT: the Senate Judiciary Committee:
sen-lamountain@rilegislature.
sen-mckenney@rilegislature.gov
sen-burke@rilegislature.gov, sen-dimitri@rilegislature.gov,
sen-euer@rilegislature.gov, sen-paolino@rilegislature.gov,
sen-patalano@rilegislature.gov
sen-raptakis@rilegislature.gov
MESSAGE: Please oppose S2724 the Convention of States. An Article V Amendments Convention cannot be limited. The COS organization has proposed dozens of amendments. Don’t jeopardize our Constitution and our fundamental rights.
(Or better yet write your own message.) More information below.
Text of S2724: https://webserver.
More Information:
Eagle Forum National Constitutional Issues Chairman Janine Hansen
info@eagleforum.org, janine@janinehansen.com www.eagleforum.org 775-397-
An Article V Convention Cannot be Limited: Phyllis Schlafly, the founder of Eagle Forum, often quoted Chief Justice Warren Burger as the highest authority to ever speak out on a Constitutional Convention. He stated: “I have also repeatedly given my opinion that there is no effective way to limit or muzzle the action 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 would be too late to stop the convention if we don’t like the agenda.” In addition, in 2015 the New Jersey Law Journal reported that former Supreme Court Justice “Scalia called it a ‘horrible idea’ to hold a constitutional convention in this age of special interests.”
The Convention of States language is very broad and opens every Section of the Constitution to amendment. In fact, in the COS Pocket Guide they propose dozens of possible amendments. COS’s language “to limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government,” was the purpose of the original Constitution. There was nothing wrong with the Constitution, but the 16th Amendment income tax and the 17th Amendment direct election of Senators, both approved by the states, simply destroyed Federalism and the balance of power between the states and the federal government. Now every school district, city, county and state is controlled by the Federal government through money, grants, and mandates. As state Legislators you have the power to refuse federal money and mandates and turn back the tide of the overreaching federal government.
Until states get serious about rejecting federal money and mandates COS’s language of “imposing fiscal restraints on the federal government” will simply be impossible. Which state legislator as a delegate at a national Constitutional Convention will vote to defund their state of between 31% to 56%, they receive from the federal government?
Jeopardizes our Fundamental Rights: In September of 2023, California passed an Article V application, which would have completely gutted the Second Amendment. Although in 2025, California rescinded all previous applications for Article V Constitutional Conventions, it does not diminish California’s anti-Second Amendment agenda. Knowing that all 50 states will participate in any Article V Constitutional Convention, we can anticipate that all the well-funded anti-Second Amendment organizations will be there supporting California’s anti-Second Amendment agenda and lobbying to take away our fundamental Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Other rights such as religious liberty and free speech, could also be in jeopardy.
Large Population States will Control the Convention: Since the Articles of Confederation were superseded by the U.S. Constitution, representation has always been according to the Great Compromise. Each state has two U.S. Senators and the House of Representatives is based on population, just like the Electoral College. This is the formula the U.S. Senate and House used in their proposed procedural bills for an Article V Convention. This precludes the one state one vote argument promoted by convention advocates. What it would mean is that Rhode Island would have 4 votes in a Convention and California 54 votes, New York 28 votes and Texas 40 votes.
Ratification Process Could be Changed: In Article V the only thing mentioned that cannot be amended is the equal representation of each state in the U.S. Senate without the consent of each state. What that means is that even the amending process in Article V can be changed. As in the original Constitutional Convention,, where the ratification process was changed from unanimous consent to amend the Articles, to only nine states necessary to ratify the Constitution, a new Constitutional Convention could change the ratification process from three-fourths of the states to something less like twenty-six states. In addition, according to Article V, Congress can send any amendments proposed by the Convention to the State Legislatures for ratification or to conventions in those states bypassing the state legislatures entirely, which they did to pass the repeal of prohibition.
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