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The Second Constitutional Convention of the United States is a proposal made by some scholars and activists from both left and right for a substantive effort to reform politics in the United States by means of overhauling the federal frame of government, the Constitution. Article V of the Constitution provides two ways to propose amendments to the frame of government: By a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress, or by a convention that has been requested by two-thirds of the states. Either way, three-fourths of the states (now 38) must ratify the amendment.〔 ==History== There have been scattered calls at the state level for a second convention throughout the nation's history. In 1943, a lawyer for Chicago-based Marshall Field's department store as well as Time Inc. wrote a book ''A Time for Change'' calling for a convention to "streamline the United States government." In the late 1960s, Senator Everett Dirksen called for a second constitutional convention by appealing to state legislatures to summon one. There have been acts by state legislatures urging Congress to press for constitutional amendments to deal with apportionment issues as well as the balanced budget amendment.〔 A report in the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' in 2011 described the movement for a second convention as gaining "traction" in public debate,〔 and wrote that "concern over a seemingly dysfunctional climate in Washington and issues ranging from the national debt to the overwhelming influence of money in politics have spawned calls for fundamental change in the document that guides the nation's government."〔 For several years, state lawmakers approved no Article V Convention calls at all, and even went so far as to adopt resolutions rescinding their prior such calls. However, in 2011, legislators in Alabama, Louisiana, and North Dakota (in two instances) approved resolutions applying for an Article V Convention. All three of these states had adopted rescissions in 1988, 1990, and 2001, respectively, but then reversed course in 2011. The very same was true in 2012 with New Hampshire lawmakers who had just adopted a resolution to rescind previous convention applications as recently as 2010. Many states have called for an ''Article V Convention'' to discuss adding a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Federal Constitution. To summon such a convention for this amendment, 34 states need to apply. In 2013, the number of states making the application is unclear; it may be either 33 or 20,〔Robert Higgs, Northeast Ohio Media Group, November 25, 2013, (House and Senate leaders to tout need for balanced budget amendment to U.S. Constitution ), Accessed Dec. 29, 2013〕 and the tally may depend on rulings about whether past state applications may or may not be rescinded. In 1983, Missouri applied;〔Terry Ganey, January 23, 2010, Columbia Daily Tribune, ( Legislators push balanced budget: U.S. deficits spur amendment call ), Accessed Dec. 29, 2013, "...Legislatures have petitioned Congress to adopt an amendment in the past. Kelly recalled voting for one in 1983...."〕 in 2013, Ohio applied.〔Jeremy Pelzer, Northeast Ohio Media Group, November 22, 2013, (Ohio lawmakers join in push for national convention on balanced-budget amendment ), Accessed Dec. 29, 2013, "...under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, such a convention would be held if 34 state legislatures ask for it... would then have to be ratified by 38 states to take effect...."〕 It may take years before a sufficient number of state legislatures apply; if such a convention happened, the Balanced Budget Amendment would happen if 38 states ratified the amendment. At the congressional level, exactly one month to the date before his death in a February 14, 1975, plane crash, the late U.S. Representative Jerry L. Pettis, Republican of California, went so far as to introduce House Concurrent Resolution No. 28 which—had it been approved by both houses of Congress—would have triggered a national convention to have been assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of proposing amendments to the federal Constitution. Pettis' concurrent resolution would have stipulated that each state would have been entitled to send as many delegates to that convention as it had Senators and Representatives in Congress and that such delegates would be selected in the manner designated by the legislature of such state. On August 5, 1977, former U.S. Representative Norman F. Lent Republican of New York introduced House Concurrent Resolution No. 340, which was quite similar to Pettis' 1975 H.Con.Res. 28. Lent's H.Con.Res. 340 received no further consideration than to be referred to the House's Committee on the Judiciary. A report by analyst David Gergen in ''CNN'' suggested that despite serious differences between left-leaning ''Occupy'' movements and the right-leaning ''Tea Party'' movements, there was considerable agreement on both sides that money plays "far too large a role in politics." Scholars such as Richard Labunski, Sanford Levinson, Lawrence Lessig, Glenn Reynolds,〔 Larry Sabato,〔 newspaper columnist William Safire, and activists such as John Booth of the Dallas movement ''RestoringFreedom.org'' have called for constitutional changes that would curb the dominant role of money in politics.〔 Scholar Stein Ringen in his book ''Nation of Devils'' suggested that only a "total overhaul" of the constitution could fix the "years of accumulated damage and dysfunction," according to a report in the ''Economist'' in 2013.〔Staff writer, reviewing ''Nation of Devils: Democratic Leadership and the Problem of Obedience'' by Stein Ringen, ''The Economist'', Oct 5th 2013, (The maturing of democracy -- Picking up the tab -- Democracy has survived many crises. Elected governments should worry less about voting lobbies and more about how to govern well ), Accessed Nov 8, 2013, "...About democracy in America, Mr Ringen nears despair. Nothing short of a total overhaul of the constitution will repair the years of accumulated damage and dysfunction, he believes...."〕 French journalist Jean-Philippe Immarigeon suggested in ''Harper's magazine'' that the "nearly 230-year-old constitution stretched past the limits of its usefulness".〔Jean-Philippe Immarigeon, Harper's Magazine, February 2014 issue, (Dissolve Congress: A cure for constitutional crisis ), Accessed Jan. 25, 2014, "...experienced America’s institutional breakdown..."〕 A report in ''USA Today'' suggested that 17 of 34 states have petitioned Congress for a convention to deal with the issue of a balanced budget amendment. A report in ''CNN'' suggested that 30 state legislatures are considering resolutions either calling for a constitutional convention or else proposing changes to the Constitution. David O. Stewart suggested that possible topics for Constitutional amendments might include the elimination of the electoral college and switching to direct election of the president, a ban on procedures in the House or Senate which require a supermajority vote as a means to prevent minorities or powerful Senators from blocking legislation, term limits for congresspersons, and a balanced budget amendment.〔 While in 2011, the number of voices calling for such a Constitutional Convention were small in number, there were reports of state legislatures leaning in the direction of substantive constitutional reform, based in part on widespread dissatisfaction with the American political process at the national level. In contrast, however, analyst David O. Stewart, writing in the ''Huffington Post'', suggested that most Americans would "recoil from the disruption" of a possible second Constitution. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Second Constitutional Convention of the United States」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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