Interest in Amendments Convention Spurs Law School Symposium

PALM CITY, Fla., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- As a result of the growing interest in convening an Amendments Convention called by our nation's state legislators, on September 16 at its Lansing, Michigan conference center, the Thomas M. Cooley Law School will host a scholarly symposium to discuss how the Founding Fathers anticipated states would propose amendments to the Constitution to restrain the federal government.

The symposium will focus on Article V of the United States Constitution which enables 34 state legislatures to call a convention for the purpose of recommending amendments to the Constitution. The proposed amendments then need to be ratified by 38 states.

"There is growing discontent among the people regarding the irresponsible borrowing by the national government and its intrusion into our daily lives," commented William H. Fruth, founder of 10 Amendments for Freedom and a speaker at the symposium. "I believe you will see the state legislatures call an Amendments Convention in 2011."

Thomas M. Cooley Law school, with four campuses in Michigan, is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and is ranked 12th in the nation for overall quality in the 10th edition of Judging the Law Schools.

Judge Thomas E. Brennan, who founded the Cooley Law School in 1972 and served as its Dean until 2002, will be the featured luncheon speaker at the symposium. Judge Brennan has been a long-time advocate of convening an Article V Amendments Convention.

Among the presenters is Robert G. Natelson, Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute, who will discuss his soon-to-be-published paper which details how an Amendments Convention will be limited to discussing specific amendment topics and not an be "open" convention.

"It is clear that a Convention for Proposing Amendments is a limited-purpose assembly, and not a plenary or 'constitutional' convention," writes Natelson in his paper.

Virginia House of Delegates member James LeMunyon will discuss the interest his legislature has in convening a convention.

"The U.S. Congress is in a state of serious disrepair and cannot fix itself. It has reached this point over the course of many years - in fact, over many decades. Regardless of the party in power, Congress has demonstrated a growing inability to effectively address the major issues of our time, including soaring federal debt and the extension of federal authority to states and localities," stated LeMunyon.

"An Amendments Convention has never been called by the states even though the Founding Fathers fully anticipated they should be convened to restrain the growth of the federal government," commented Fruth.

Referring to Article V, Alexander Hamilton wrote: "We may safely rely on the disposition of the state legislatures to erect barriers against the encroachments of the national authority."

For more information regarding the Article V Convention symposium, go to http://www.cooley.edu/newsevents/_docs/symposium_program.pdf or to http://www.10amendments.org.

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SOURCE 10 Amendments for Freedom, Inc.