Safeguard Article V from Exploitation (SAVE)

Imagine a tool embedded deep inside our Constitution designed to safeguard American democracy. Now imagine that same tool being weaponized against the very constitution and democracy it was designed to protect. That’s what we’re facing with an Article V Convention!

Historically, Article V was designed as a safeguard against power concentration, providing a mechanism for states to propose and ratify constitutional amendments without the involvement of Congress. However, our report reveals how AVCC’s vagueness may ironically cause the power concentration it was designed to prevent. AVCC’s invocation is now closer to success than ever before, largely due to a new wave of funding, lobbying, and astroturfing operations fueled by special interests and dark money.

With our allies, we’re fighting to stop dark money groups from successfully triggering an Article V Convention at the statehouses that could:

One year ago, the Task Force authored a report titled “The Unknown Threat to American Democracy”. The report delves into the ambiguity of an Article V Constitutional Convention (AVCC), a virtually unknown provision that could fundamentally reshape our Constitution, our liberties, and our democracy. Our report builds off previous nonprofit and government research of Article V, presenting a broad analysis of AVCC, shedding light on its original intent, its past influence on Congressional action, its vulnerabilities, and the current attempts at its invocation.

The full version of the report is available here.