In a victory for the U.S. Constitution, Oregon has rescinded all its applications for an Article V Constitutional Convention, or Con-Con.
On July 18, Governor Tina Kotek signed House Bill 2625 (H.B. 3625) into law. The bill had previously passed the House by a 33-16 vote, and the Senate by a 25-0 vote.
H.B. 3625, once it goes into effect on September 24, rescinds all of Oregon’s extant (or “live”) Con-Con applications. It declares: “An application for an amendment convention under Article V of the United States Constitution that was submitted by the Legislative Assembly to Congress before the effective date of this 2023 Act is hereby withdrawn and is null and void.”
Additionally, the Legislative Assembly enacted House Joint Memorial 3 (H.J.M. 3), which formally informs Congress of Oregon’s rescission of its Con-Con applications. Unlike H.B. 3625, the governor’s signature was not required for H.J.M. 3’s enaction.
Although Oregon rescinded a so-called Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) application in 2000, it has multiple other Con-Con applications passed between 1864 and 1971 — in particular, H.J.R. 4, passed in 1901 — that could have potentially been aggregated with unrelated BBA applications.
Oregon’s rescission prevents BBA proponents from attempting to aggregate any of these old applications with the more recent BBA applications.
Applications in Other States Defeated, Rescinded
Oregon is not the only state to have recently rescinded or defeated Con-Con applications in the last couple of years.
In April 2022, the Illinois General Assembly enacted a joint resolution rescinding all of its previously passed Con-Con applications, including an 1861 application related to preventing the Civil War that BBA supporters had advocated aggregating with BBA applications (others included one effectively calling for weakening the Electoral College, while another called for directly limiting the First Amendment’s free-speech protections). This action followed New Jersey, which in December 2021 also rescinded all its Con-Con applications.
Also, multiple new resolutions applying for an Article V Con-Con have been defeated. So far this year, nearly all such resolutions — across almost two dozen states — have failed. In Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, majorities in the respective state legislatures voted against their respective introduced resolutions. The sole exception was Oklahoma, which passed a resolution applying for a convention to propose a congressional term-limits amendment.
Meanwhile, the Texas Legislature failed to extend the “sunset” period for its “Convention of States” Con-Con application. Barring a special session specifically for this purpose, the application is set to automatically expire in May 2025. And besides Oregon, resolutions to rescind existing Con-Con applications have been introduced in several states, including Alabama.
However, much more needs to be done to safeguard the Constitution and our God-given freedoms. To secure even more victories against the Con-Con, it is necessary to inform legislators and the public about the Constitution and the principles of liberty, as well as proper solutions to federal overreach such as nullification. As The John Birch Society has been saying for decades, education is the solution, and as Robert Welch wrote, “education is our total strategy, and truth is our only weapon.”
To urge your state legislators to oppose resolutions applying for an Article V constitutional convention, visit The John Birch Society’s legislative alert here. Also, to urge your legislators to support rescinding existing Con-Con applications, visit the JBS’s legislative alert here.
