Status of Article V Web Sites –

By Stuart MacPhail – November 2020

Friends of the Article V Convention (FOAVC) bills itself as “the oldest non-partisan national organization dedicated to bringing about an Article V Convention.”  Organized in 2007 by 6 co-founders, former Chief Justice of the Michigan State Supreme Court Thomas E. Brennan was the most prominent of the group’s leaders.  Brennan founded the Thomas M. Cooley Law School (now known as Western Michigan Cooley Law School – Lansing, Michigan) in 1972.  Judge Brennan passed away in September 2018.

Second in command at FOAVC was Bill Walker.  He was instrumental in helping to gather, for the first time in US history, the public record of state applications for a convention call into a single photographic record presenting the full text of the state applications.  Previously published lists of state applications only presented Congressional Record citations but did not present the text of the applications.  Through Mr. Walker’s efforts an additional 200 application records that were never previously listed in prior publications were uncovered in the Congressional Record and published on the FOAVC site for the first time.

This past Spring Bill Walker died… but the site lives on, maintained by his associates.  Go to questions@foavc.org to make contact with the current site operators.

  • The Article V Library operated by attorney Robert Biggerstaff, was unreachable for a few months this year due to web host difficulties.  It is now intermittently back in business at http://article5library.org/, and still contains large volumes of information about Article V.

Biggerstaff started the Article V Library several years ago with the goal of having the most complete possible electronic source of Article V-related materials with accurate citations, research notes, that is searchable by full text.  It seeks to do what Congress has failed to do: maintain a complete and public index of all state Article V applications and related documents.

  • The Resources section of the State Legislators’ Article V Caucus web site does not compete with either of the above recommended sites.  Rather, it contains a wide array of Article V-related articles, papers and books on topics ranging from the history of Article V; research on specific Article V topics; myths about adoption of the 1787 Constitution; information about specific Article V campaign issues; and research on federalism, the electoral college, voting issues… plus contact information for the various Article V-related groups.
  • The ArticleV.blog, operated by Doug Leitzke of Menominee, MI, is a relatively new Article V web site.  It has a Forum, and focuses on publishing Article V-related opinions.
  • [editor: accidently left out of original] ArticleVBlog by Rodney Dodsworth explores many aspects of the history of the process and why it’s an important element of the Constitution.

Good Related Reads –

  • A Fiscal Cliff, a $19.95 book subtitled “New Perspectives on the US Federal Debt Crisis,” by economists John Merrifield and Barry W. Poulson.

This new book is a series of essays by 17 scholars, economists and policymakers assessing current minimal US fiscal constraints, and provides new perspectives that are desperately needed in order to solve the nation’s debt crisis.  The book suggests that “unless we reform our fiscal rules and institutions, we are not likely to solve the debt crisis and restore sustainable fiscal policies.”   The book is available from the CATO Institute HERE.

Article V Caucus