Earlier this year, the Montana legislature almost took the whole country another step toward a constitutional crisis.
A resolution that passed through a Senate committee before stalling on the floor calls for a national convention to rewrite the U.S. Constitution using Article V — a mechanism that has never once been invoked in the 237-year history of our republic.
What’s more, this wasn’t an isolated moment; it’s just one front in a nationwide campaign. Michigan citizens will also vote on this in November 2026. The effort is being led by the Convention of States Project, with political and financial backing from the Heritage Foundation, ALEC and a network of deep-pocketed, dark-money interests.
Let’s be clear: this is no fringe crusade. It is a coordinated and well-funded attempt to do something no generation of Americans has ever done, with no clear rules, no delegate selection process, and an agenda that constitutional experts say cannot be limited.
Nineteen states have already passed resolutions calling for a Constitutional Convention. Additionally, 28 states have passed resolutions to enact an amendment to require a federal balanced budget. Only six more states are required to reach the 34 states needed to call this convention.
The Convention of States Project and its allies say they just want want term limits, a balanced budget and a little more power for the states. But the proposals, and a simulated convention they held in 2016, tell a different story. In reality, they want to:
- allow states to nullify federal laws and regulations;
- allow states to vacate Supreme Court decisions; and
- repeal the 16th Amendment, which legalized the federal income tax.
And if we had a Constitutional Convention, there is little doubt Donald Trump would be pressing to include in the agenda the repeal of the two-term limit on serving as president. Supporters claim there’s no risk because any amendment would still require ratification by three-fourths of the states. But that misses the point.
When radical ideas are debated on a national stage, they gain traction. They gain legitimacy. They enter the bloodstream. We saw it with the “independent state legislature” theory. We saw it with absolute presidential immunity.
Meanwhile, the number of Article V bills is increasing. And the U.S. Term Limits campaign has joined the effort. They’re advancing something called the “amalgamation theory” — a dubious legal theory that would allow unrelated state resolutions to be stitched together and counted toward the 34-state threshold required to trigger a convention.
This is not a grassroots uprising. It is a top-down, money-driven operation led by political operatives who are also pushing Project 2025, the sweeping plan to consolidate presidential power, purge career civil servants and gut federal oversight. A convention could lock that authoritarian agenda into our Constitution.
But here’s the good news: the resistance is working. A national coalition opposing the call, which Democracy 21 helped create, has stalled efforts to add states for years.
In Montana and Idaho, bipartisan coalitions — including civil rights groups, labor unions and conservative constitutionalists — successfully blocked new convention calls. Washington and Connecticut rescinded earlier resolutions. And as of mid-2025, 16 states, including New York, California, New Jersey, Colorado and Illinois, are convention-free. Massachusetts may soon follow. If we reach 17 states, the effort to call a Constitutional Convention would be blocked for now.
These victories matter. They show what happens when citizens engage and lawmakers recognize the stakes. But the fight is far from over. The pro-convention campaign is persistent, well-organized and better funded than ever.
Some may be tempted to dismiss this effort as too extreme to succeed. That would be a grave mistake.
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán hollowed out his country’s democracy by working within the system, until there was no system left to check him. This movement is following the same playbook, using our Constitution not to protect democracy, but to dismantle it.
Our Constitution doesn’t need to be rewritten by those who see democracy as an obstacle. It must be defended by those who believe in checks and balances, in representative government, and in the rule of law.
State legislators must reject any new calls for a convention. And where calls already exist, they must be rescinded. The stakes could not be higher.
This is not reform. It is a coordinated power grab. And it must be stopped.
Fred Wertheimer is president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to protect and strengthen American democracy.
