Mike Johnson has supported a radical 'far-fetched' movement to 'remake the Constitution': report

10 November 2023

When the Tea Party movement gained momentum during the Barack Obama years, some Tea Party Republicans promoted the Convention of States movement — which calls for giving the U.S. Constitution a far-right makeover. That's much easier said than done, of course. But the idea has lived on in the MAGA movement.

One long-time Convention of States proponent, according to journalist Laura Jedeed, is House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana).

In a report published by Politico on November 10, Jedeed explains, "For the last ten years, the 'Convention of States' movement has sought to remake the Constitution and force a Tea Party vision of the Framers' intent upon America. This group wants to wholesale rewrite wide swaths of the U.S. Constitution in one fell swoop. In the process, they hope to do away with regulatory agencies like the FDA and the CDC, virtually eliminate the federal government's ability to borrow money, and empower state legislatures to override federal law."

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Jedeed adds, "As far-fetched as this idea might sound, the movement is gaining traction — and now, it believes, it has a friend in the speaker of the House."

Mark Meckler, co-founder of the group Convention of States Action (COSA), told Politico that Johnson "has long been a supporter of Convention of States."

According to Jedeed, Johnson has "never directly endorsed COSA as a member of Congress, and he does not directly endorse it now." But the now-speaker, Jedeed adds, was open to the Convention of States movement when he was serving in the Louisiana State Legislature.

Jedeed describes the difficult process that would be necessary for a group like COSA to achieve its goal, noting the "two processes for amending the Constitution."

"The first is the one you probably learned sometime in grade school: Two-thirds of Congress must approve a potential amendment, which then goes to the states for consideration," Jedeed explains. "If three-fourths of the states approve it, the amendment is added into the Constitution."

Jedeed continues, "But Article V of the Constitution provides a second path: If two-thirds of the states petition Congress, it must call a constitutional convention, where multiple amendments could be proposed at the same time. The Constitution does not specify how to select delegates from states to this convention, provides no limit on the scope of such a convention, and offers no guidance on how the convention would ratify these new amendments."

Johnson, according to Jedeed, was on board when Republicans in Louisiana State Legislature voted on a measure calling for an Article V convention.

The now-speaker said, "This is the measure of last resort. Let's agree that government is doing too much. I will tell you it's doing way more than the Founders intended or designed it to do. I came to this conclusion myself reluctantly, but I'm there. I think we have to do it."

Read Politico's full report at this link.

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