Former Justice Richard Neely gives lawmakers spirited argument against constitutional convention

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday passed a resolution urging West Virginia to join the movement for a constitutional convention to adopt a federal balanced budget amendment. The committee approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 by a vote of 9-6.

The resolution passed despite animated warnings from former state Supreme Court Justice Richard Neely, who said that a convention could end up being a free-for-all.

“The big danger in joining with other states to have a constitutional convention is that they will screw with a lot of pieces of the Constitution that we don’t want screwed with,” Neely told the committee.

Ohio Governor John Kasich visited West Virginia lawmakers several weeks ago to pitch the idea.  He argued that states should exercise Article V of the Constitution providing for a constitutional convention to consider amendments when two-thirds of the states approve.  “This is a basic American value not to spend more than you take in,” Kasich said in Charleston on Feb. 19.

Neely, however, cautioned lawmakers that it would be difficult to contain a convention to just one issue. “There’s a lot of stuff in the Constitution that nobody wants fooled with and there are a lot of crazy bastards out there that want to fool with it,” the animated Neely said.

For example, Neely said, a constitutional convention could end up tampering with the 2nd Amendment, which is important to West Virginians.  “You can believe that every pointy-headed, wine-sipping, cheese-eating, Volvo-driving, NPR-listening woose, right, from across the country, at the first Constitutional (convention) will make a hard charge at eliminating the 2nd Amendment.”

The majority of committee members, however, supported the idea of forcing the federal government’s hand to try to get spending under control.

Meanwhile, the committee rejected 9-7 a second resolution calling for a convention of states that called for a series of amendments to the Constitution imposing fiscal restraints, liming jurisdiction and setting term limits.





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