In Maine, a push in Legislature could lead to a rewrite of the U.S. Constitution [View all]

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Source: Portland Press Herald

A pair of resolutions under consideration by the Legislature that lift much of their wording from model bills written by a secretive, corporation-funded group could help lead to a radical rewriting of the U.S. Constitution.

The resolutions seek to add Maine to the list of states that have called for the convening of a constitutional convention for the first time since the Constitution was drafted in 1787. Maine would become the 29th state to endorse the most successful of the two measures, which would put the effort just five states short of the 34 required to convene a convention under Article V of the U.S. Constitution at which delegates could set about amending the document in any way they wished, regardless of the purported purpose for which they had convened. The other state legislatures passed their resolutions over the past four decades, and there is no time limit to reach the required number.

Both of the bills were introduced by Rep. Nathan Wadsworth, R-Hiram, the Maine state co-chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, an organization funded by corporations and conservative donors that allows businesses to write legislation and give it to state lawmakers to introduce at home. Each borrows much of its wording – often word for word – from ALEC’s model bills.

“These proposals are nakedly political,” said Arn Pearson, executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that tracks ALEC. “Republicans are at a high-water mark in their control of state legislatures, and they see this as an opportunity to make sweeping changes in how the government works.”

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Read more: https://www.pressherald.com/2018/03/01/maine-resolutions-would-aid-scheme-to-rewrite-u-s-constitution/