We pause for a moment to reflect on the possibilities of an Article V convention [FN1] by posing these questions:
a) Who stands to gain from an Article V convention?
b) What media are available to make a pitch for it?
c) Are falsehoods being advanced to make that pitch? 1/17

a) Monied interests that hate the rule of law will love an Article V convention.
May 19’s GOP primary in KY’s 4th Congr district w/a record $32 million spent, shows money flows when power is implicated. [FN2] This was made possible by 2/17

Citizens United v FEC [FN3] whose “most significant outcomes” are “the creation of super PACs, which empower the wealthiest donors, and the expansion of dark money through shadowy nonprofits that don’t disclose their donors.” [FN4] The Roberts Court [FN5] 3/17

did not go far enough. After all, w/rent [FN6] comes a possibility that one might lose elections. For more money, corporate interests can take ownership. [FN7] A new Constitution could give more “rights” to corporations & foreign interests, and strip rights that now exist. 4/17

b) Media that can blast out or undermine, as necessary, are in billionaires’ hands.
Sure, “legacy” television networks and newspapers are owned by the rich. TV can fire comics who offend, & newspapers’ staffs can be fired & replaced w/lackeys. 5/17

Owning social media platforms confers the ability to “shadow ban,” to construct algorithms and the power to control the “garbage in” so as to determine beforehand what reality people online see as real means they can tell people what is reality to believe. [FN8] 6/17

c) There are falsehoods trotted out to make people believed an Art V convention is okay.
One falsehood, among others, is very important; that an Article V convention can be limited in its scope. There are comments from academic sources that demean opponents. 7/17

There only has been one constitutional convention, and it went far afield from limits set on it by Congress. Chief Justice Warren Burger: “there is no effective way to limit or muzzle the actions of a Constitutional Convention ... to one amendment or to one issue, but [] 8/17

after a Convention is convened it will be too late to stop...” [FN9] Burger was a Nixon nominee. Then there’s Judge Robert Bork: “..a federal constitutional convention could not be limited to a single issue [] the original Philadelphia Convention went well beyond 9/17

the purposes for which it was called.” [FN9] Dark money, slush funds, votes bought and sold: all sounds like the fantasy of someone who wants to hold the country’s highest office forever. The plans for the media extravaganza ... no doubt are grotesque. We’ll look at those... 10/17

Footnotes:
FN1. Art. V of the U.S. Constitution states how it can be amended, including by convention:
“The Congress ... 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 11/17

FN1a. 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...” 12/17

FN2. Kenton Hornbeck, “Massie, Gallrein GOP primary becomes most expensive in U.S. history,” LiNKY, 5/18/26, accessed 5/25/26.
FN3. 558 U.S. 50, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010).
FN4. Daniel I. Weiner, “Citizens United, Explained,” Brennan Center for Justice, 12/12/19, updated 1/29/25, accessed 5/25/26. 13/17

FN5. The Most Corrupt Supreme Court in history for which the adjective “lick spittle” seems kind.
FN6. “rent, n. Consideration paid, usu. periodically, for the or occupation of property.” Black’s Law Dictionary, New Pocket Ed. (1996), p. 538. 14/17

FN7. The collection of rights allowing one to use and enjoy property, including the right to convey It to others; ownership implies the right to possess a thing, regardless of any actual or constructive control.” Id., p. 463. 15/17

FN8. “Peer-reviewed study put hard numbers to the 2024 election: ... algorithms that control [] largest social media platforms intentionally & explicitly tilted the playing field.” The Hartmann Report, 5/7/26, citing
FN8a. Ibrahim, et al, “Systematic partisan content skews in Tik Tok during the 2024 U.S. elections,” Nature, 5/6/26, accessed 5/25/26. 16/17

FN9. Earl DeGroot, “DeGroot: A Constitutional Convention is a bad idea,” Wyoming Tribune Eagle, 2/8/25, updated 3/15/26, accessed 5/24/26.
FN 10. Id. 17/17