How a State Legislature Applies for an Article V Convention, Step by Step

You cannot apply for an Article V convention. Neither can your county commission, your favorite think tank, or the nice man with the clipboard outside the grocery store. Only a state legislature can. That is not a loophole in the Founders' design. It is the design: the second route to amending the Constitution belongs to the states as states, acting through the bodies their people elect.

So if you want a convention, your work happens in a state capitol, one committee room at a time. This post lays out the steps in order, plainly, with the open questions flagged where they belong. If you want the argument for and against using the convention route at all, read A Convention of States Is the Founders' Safety Valve, Weighed Honestly first. This one assumes you have decided and want to know how it works.

The constitutional text you are working from

Every step below hangs on one clause. Article V provides that Congress, "on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments," which become part of the Constitution "when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress."

Three numbers come out of that sentence, and you will use them constantly.

The arithmetic: two-thirds of 50 is 33.33, which rounds up to 34, since a fraction of a state cannot apply. Three-fourths of 50 is 37.5, which rounds up to 38. That also means 13 states (50 minus 37) can block any proposal.

Notice what the clause leaves out. It says nothing about the governor. It says nothing about a popular vote. It says "Legislatures." That word drives the first practical rule.

Step 1: Find the subject and the existing record

Before anyone drafts anything, answer two questions.

1. What subject? Most of the practical effort today follows single-subject or limited-subject applications: a balanced federal budget, term limits for members of Congress, or a cluster of amendments to limit federal power and spending. Pick the subject first, because the subject determines which other states' applications yours can be counted with.
2. What has your state already passed? Many legislatures passed Article V applications decades ago, and some later voted to rescind them. Look up your state's record through the legislature's own bill search. Congress also receives these applications as memorials, and you can search the Congressional Record and Congress.gov for your state's name and "Article V."

If your state already has a live application on your subject, your job may be defending it against a rescission bill, not passing a new one.

Step 2: Draft the application resolution

An application is usually a joint resolution, sometimes a concurrent resolution, depending on the state's rules. It is not a bill, so in most states it does not go to the governor. The resolution should contain these parts, in plain words.

1. The constitutional basis. A clause stating that the legislature applies under Article V of the Constitution of the United States.
2. The call. A request that Congress call a convention for proposing amendments.
3. The limit. A sentence confining the convention to a named subject, for example "limited to proposing amendments that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government." This is the single most important sentence in the document.
4. The aggregation clause. A statement that this application is to be counted together with applications from other states on the same subject until two-thirds is reached.
5. The duration clause, if any. Some drafters add a sunset date; others say the application remains in effect until rescinded. Decide deliberately.
6. The transmission clause. An instruction to the secretary of state or the clerk to send certified copies to the President of the Senate (the Vice President), the Speaker of the House, and each member of the state's congressional delegation, and often to the presiding officers of the other state legislatures.

Model language circulates from several national organizations on all sides of this question. Read more than one, and compare the limiting clauses word by word. The narrower and clearer the subject, the stronger the argument that the convention is confined to it.

Step 3: Find sponsors and get it filed

A resolution needs a legislator to introduce it. In practice you need two: a sponsor in each chamber, ideally a committee chair or a member respected on both sides.

• Contact your own state representative and state senator first. Use My Representatives to confirm who they are.
• Ask for a meeting, bring a one-page summary and the draft text, and ask a direct question: will you sponsor this, and if not, will you vote for it?
• Ask the sponsor to check the filing deadline. Many legislatures close introduction early in the session.

Step 4: Committee hearing and committee vote

The resolution will be referred to a committee, often judiciary, state affairs or federal relations. This is where most applications die, usually by never being scheduled.

1. Ask the sponsor to request a hearing.
2. Sign up to testify if the state allows public testimony. Keep it to three minutes: the subject, the text of Article V, the 38-state ratification check, and why your district cares.
3. Expect the hard question: "What if it runs away?" Answer it with the text. A convention proposes; nothing takes effect without 38 states.
4. After the hearing, the committee votes to report the resolution favorably, unfavorably or not at all.

Committee members respond to constituents in their own districts far more than to anyone else. Find out who sits on the committee and whether you know anyone who lives in their districts.

Step 5: Floor votes in both chambers

Once reported, the resolution goes to the floor. Check the chamber's rules on how many votes it needs, because the threshold is set by each legislature's own rules, not by Article V. Then the second chamber repeats the committee and floor steps, which means every hurdle in Step 4 appears twice. Legislatures are bicameral for the same reason the Congress is: the Founders believed a good idea could survive being asked the same question twice.

Two practical points.

• Identical text matters. If the second chamber amends the resolution, the first chamber must agree to the change, or a conference committee must settle it. A stray word in the limiting clause can make your state's application impossible to count with the others.
• Watch the governor question. Because Article V names the legislatures, most states do not send these resolutions to the governor. If your state's rules do, find out early.

Step 6: Transmission to Congress

After final passage, the designated officer certifies the resolution and sends it on. Congress receives state applications and prints them as memorials. Ask your sponsor to confirm, in writing, the date each copy was sent and to whom. You want a paper trail, because the count of applications will eventually be argued over, and a missing certificate is an argument you do not want to have.

Step 7: Reaching 34, and Congress's duty to call

When applications from 34 states on the same subject are in hand, Article V says Congress "shall call" the convention. The text gives Congress no discretion over whether to call. In practice, Congress would likely pass a concurrent resolution or a statute setting a time and place and choosing the mode of ratification.

Here the honest playbook has to flag what is unsettled.

• Counting. Congress has never adopted a formal rule for which applications count together. Most supporters assume only applications on the same subject aggregate.
• Rescissions. States have voted to withdraw old applications. Whether a rescission counts has never been decided.
• Old applications. Article V sets no expiration. Whether a decades-old application still counts is an open question.
• Enforcement. If Congress refused to call, there is no clear court remedy to make it act. The pressure would be political.

Nobody can promise you how each question would be answered. Anyone who does is selling something.

A worked example of the count

Here is a labelled hypothetical, to show why wording matters. Picture three states. State A applies for a convention "limited to proposing amendments requiring a balanced federal budget." State B applies for a convention "limited to proposing amendments that impose fiscal restraints on the federal government, limit its power and jurisdiction, and limit the terms of its officials." State C applies for a convention "for proposing an amendment setting term limits for members of Congress."

Do these three count together? A strict reader would say no: A asks for one narrow subject, B asks for three related ones, and C asks for a different subject altogether. A generous reader might count B with A on fiscal restraint and B with C on term limits, but A and C never meet. Multiply that by fifty states, applications passed over half a century, and a handful of rescissions, and you can see why a careless limiting clause can strand your state's application on an island of one. The fix is simple and boring: match the operative language of the applications already passed on your subject, word for word where you can.

Common mistakes that sink applications

Advocates who have watched these efforts over the years tend to name the same errors.

1. Drafting a fresh limiting clause. Creativity is a virtue in poetry. In an Article V application it is a liability. Use language other states have already adopted.
2. Ignoring the rescission side. Opponents in many states file bills to withdraw old applications. If you do not show up for those hearings, you can lose ground while you are busy elsewhere.
3. Treating it as a one-session project. Few applications pass the first year they are filed. Plan for two or three sessions and keep the same sponsors.
4. Overpromising. Telling legislators a convention will fix the debt by spring invites the reasonable answer that nothing fixes the debt by spring. Promise only what Article V delivers: a forum to propose, and a 38-state test to ratify.
5. Skipping the delegate law. A state that applies without saying how its commissioners will be chosen and instructed hands that question to whoever is in power when the call comes.

Step 8: Choosing the delegates

Article V says nothing about who attends. The most common expectation, following the interstate conventions of the founding era, is that each state legislature chooses its own delegation (often called commissioners) and that each state casts one vote, as the states did at Philadelphia in 1787.

What your state can do now, before any call:

1. Pass a delegate-selection law. Set out how commissioners are chosen, typically by joint vote of the legislature.
2. Pass a delegate-instruction law. Several states have enacted laws that bind their commissioners to the subject of the application and treat a vote outside it as void or as grounds for immediate recall and replacement.
3. Require an oath. Some proposals require each commissioner to swear to stay within the instructions.

These laws are the state's own leash on its own delegates. They do not bind any other state, which is why the effort has to be multiplied across many legislatures.

Step 9: Ratification by 38 states

Whatever the convention proposes goes back to the states. Congress picks the mode: ratification by state legislatures, which is how 26 of the 27 amendments were adopted, or by state conventions, which was used once, for the Twenty-First Amendment in 1933.

For each amendment, the process looks like this.

1. The proposal arrives in each state through official channels.
2. The legislature (or a specially elected ratifying convention) debates and votes.
3. The state certifies its ratification to federal officials, who keep the count.
4. When the 38th state ratifies, the amendment is part of the Constitution.

That last step is the reason a convention is not a leap in the dark. A convention could propose ten amendments; any that cannot win 38 states simply die. Thirteen legislatures saying no is all it takes. The Founders built a door with a deadbolt, and the deadbolt is on the people's side.

For the founding background, see From Delaware to Rhode Island, the Ratification Fight State by State, and for the 1787 precedent critics cite, Nine of Thirteen, Why Article VII Sidestepped the Articles of Confederation. Our debate between the two camps is at Should Conservatives Call a Convention of States? Both Sides of Article V.

The case in brief

1. Only state legislatures can apply for an Article V convention, by a resolution that names a subject and asks Congress to call it.
2. Thirty-four states (two-thirds of 50) trigger Congress's duty to call; thirty-eight (three-fourths) must ratify anything a convention proposes.
3. The limiting clause, identical text and a clean transmission record are what make an application count.
4. Delegate selection and instruction laws, passed in advance, let each state bind its own commissioners to the subject.
5. Counting, rescission, staleness and enforcement remain unsettled, so honest advocates say so and build in safeguards.

What you can do: look up your state's Article V record in the legislature's bill search, then send your state senator a short letter asking whether your state has a live application and on what subject.