SPECIAL EDITION: SMART ALECs IN THE FAR-RIGHT LANE ~ THE PUSH FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION
On November 29th and 30th, the American Legislative Exchange Council met in Scottsdale for its annual States and Nation Policy Summit.
The event is a beehive of stinging recriminations against the excesses of an America that its members see as socialist, anti-Christian, woke, and, ironically, tyrannical. Its membership is a swarm of corporate interests and conservative state lawmakers. (The New York Times, in an April 2012 article, described ALEC's lawmaker members as "stealth lobbyists" for conservative causes.) Its agenda is a honeycomb of model legislation to reduce regulation, cut individual and corporate taxes, stop illegal immigration, weaken environmental regulations, tighten voter restrictions, weaken labor unions, establish term limits for federal bureaucrats and members of Congress, support “stand your ground” laws, and oppose gun control.
Let me offer just three examples of a wide-ranging menu of ALEC initiatives:
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing or ethical investing is a pathway to enhance corporate social responsibility in making the world a better place. Under ESG, socially conscious investors can assess a company’s performance in three areas:
o environmental ~ how a company assesses the risks of its operations to the ecosystem and how it addresses such issues as climate change, water security, environmental health hazards, waste, and the preservation of biodiversity
o social ~ how a company manages its relationships with employees, suppliers, and customers in order to reduce inequalities, uphold human rights, safeguard the health and safety of workers and surrounding communities, and cultivate operations that are inclusive and fair
o governance ~ how the company’s leadership exercises transparency, ensures diversity on its board of directors, upholds stringent corporate accounting standards, deals with executive compensation, and manages conflicts of interest
Sounds great, right? Sorry! According to one of ALEC’s members, Andy Puzder, the former CEO of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s, ESG is a “neo-Marxist investment strategy.” Based on a model bill that he helped write ~ State Government Employee Retirement Protection Act ~ any entity managing state, local, or university public pensions would be constrained from considering climate emergency or other social or political factors when investing pension funds.
Next, consider the model legislation, benignly titled Child Protection Investigations Reform Act, “relating to notifying a person accused of child abuse or neglect of the person’s rights in connection with an investigation conducted by the Department of Family and Protective Services [or replace with appropriate name of state child welfare agency].“ Sounds good, right, but it’s a veil for the right wing’s assault on parental decision-making in areas related to family planning or medically prescribed sex reassignment.
Third, ALEC”S Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force reviewed a model bill to prevent lawsuit abuse regarding ethylene oxide emissions. This piece of legislation would protect medical device manufacturers and distributors from potential lawsuits that may result from action by the EPA to regulating emissions of cancer-causing chemicals.
These legislative notions are just the tip of the iceberg. The most dangerous element of ALEC’s strategy is the rewriting of the Constitution of the United States.
Whatever one’s political persuasions and priorities may be, no matter how appealing some of the policy prescriptions may seem, and no matter how appropriate an opportunity for systemic change it may appear, a Constitutional Convention would open the door to havoc, mischief, and the unraveling of the intricate array of protections of our rights and liberties.
It’s important ~ crucial, actually ~ to understand how vulnerable the nation is to the possibility of a convention. The right-wing advocates of a new constitutional convention believe that they have a competitive advantage due to their successes in gerrymandering. To put it bluntly, because of gerrymandering legislative districts, they unabashedly celebrate and aim to leverage the disproportionate influence they have as a minority to direct the future of the nation. At the ALEC Summit in 2021, Rick Santorum, the former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, whose public policy bio reads like a manifesto out of a not-to-be-named fascist nation, as much as said so, proclaiming that the path to “victory” relies on gerrymandering:
“Rural voters, even though there are fewer of them…actually have an outsize granted power under this process. And we have the opportunity, as a result of that, to have a supermajority, even though…we may not even be in an absolute majority when it comes to the people who agree with us, but because of the way the concentration of votes has changed in this country, we can actually accomplish things.”
The driving force behind this movement is the Convention of States Action, a project of Citizens for Self Governance, that seeks to restrict what members perceive as the excessive powers of the federal government.
A related group, The Academy of States is “a collaborative effort of leading advocates who desire that our several state legislatures would bring reform to our federal government through a convention for proposing amendments authorized and empowered by Article V of the U.S. Constitution.” In July of 2022, at their meeting in Denver, the group presented Academy of States 3.0, “Tools for States to Prepare for a Convention for Proposing Amendments.”
The priorities of the COS initiative are to codify a balanced budget amendment that would effectively “stop the federal spending and debt spree.” The Action focuses as well on countering “the power grabs of the federal courts” and dismantling the federal government’s control of the states.
The group’s petition urges state legislators to call for an Article V Convention.
It’s worth a read:
Almost everyone knows that our federal government is on a dangerous course. The unsustainable debt combined with crushing regulations on states and businesses is a recipe for disaster.
What is less known is that the Founders gave state legislatures the power to act as a final check on abuses of power by Washington, DC. Article V of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the state legislatures to call a convention to proposing needed amendments to the Constitution. This process does not require the consent of the federal government in Washington DC.
I support Convention of States; a national movement to call a convention under Article V of the United States Constitution, restricted to proposing amendments that will impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and impose term limits on its officials and members of Congress.
I want our state to be one of the necessary 34 states to pass a resolution calling for this kind of an Article V convention. You can find a copy of the model resolution and the Article V Pocket Guide (which explains the process and answers many questions) here:
https://conventionofstates.com/handbook_pdf
I ask that you support Convention of States and consider becoming a co-sponsor. Please respond to my request by informing the national COS team of your position, or sending them any questions you may have:
info@conventionofstates.com or (540) 441-7227.
Thank you so much for your service to the people of our district.
Respectfully, [Your Name]
Article V of the Constitution provides that Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments upon the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures. This method of proposing amendments, which scholars have debated at length, has never been used. It is a complex provision of the Constitution that invites multiple interpretations. It, too, is worth a read:
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
At this point, nineteen states have passed the Convention of States application.
So, the alarm bell is rung again. Stay vigilant, my friends.
For a comprehensive review of the proceedings and recommendations of ALEC’s Summit, I recommend that you go to The Center for Media and Democracy’s site at ALEC Policy Summit Features Push to Legally Force a Constitutional Convention - EXPOSEDbyCMD.
I agree with this undertaking and would like an update as to what is happening Please
Thank you, Herb. As I recall, there was at least one bill proposed during this past legislative session in Arizona which would have constrained the Arizona State Retirement System from investing according to the ESG guidelines in your first example. Not sure if it failed, or if it passed both houses, and was then vetoed by the governor, but it did not fly. I participate in Civic Engagement Beyond Voting, otherwise I am not sure if I would have heard about it. I find it disgraceful that ALEC is determined to flout the current state of affairs in business and government accountability, which could, if followed, create admirable success in terms of environmental and social progress for all of us voters. Also, I was nor aware of the convention of states information from Article 5 of the Constitution. Thank you for sharing and keeping us informed of the increasingly despicable efforts of conservative minority groups to influence laws that will affect all citizens. Damn bastards.