Earl DeGroot’s guest column advocating against Senate Joint Resolution 5 gets the history right in one paragraph and wrong everywhere else.
The Founders didn’t fear a convention of the states — they required one in Article V of the Constitution precisely because they knew Washington would never fix itself.
James Madison and George Mason insisted on the state-controlled amendment path because they understood entrenched power.
But the states have never used this power, and the result is $36 trillion in debt, 200,000 pages of federal regulations, and D.C. bureaucrats dictating Wyoming’s energy policy, public lands, and schools.
I say “Enough”. The situation will only get worse until the states act.
DeGroot recycles the tired “runaway convention” scare. A “runaway” has never happened.
America has held 42 documented conventions of states or colonies. Not one exceeded its call.
Even the 1787 Convention wasn’t a runaway — the states’ own resolutions authorized delegates to propose whatever “alterations and further provisions” the Union needed. They did. The states ratified. End of story.
The process is tightly controlled: State legislatures choose the delegates, limit them strictly to the topics in the applications (fiscal restraints, term limits, and limits on federal power and jurisdiction), and can recall any delegate who strays.
SJR5’s language in Section 2 confirms inherent convention rules. Congress calls the meeting but has zero power to write the rules or set the agenda. That’s the states’ job.
DeGroot warns liberal states might repeal the Second Amendment or abolish the Electoral College. Nice try.
Any amendment still needs 38 states to ratify. Thirteen states can kill anything. In today’s map, good luck getting 38 states to gut the Second Amendment or the Electoral College.
The 38-state threshold makes radical changes impossible and targeted fixes realistic.
This process is the safest in the Constitution — safer than letting Congress propose amendments that expand its own power. And it’s working: Kansas became the 20th state just last month. On Feb. 24, Wyoming’s Senate passed SJR5 (19-12) and sent it to the House. Momentum is real.
Wyoming feels federal overreach more than most states.
Our lands, our energy jobs, our ranchers and sportsmen are strangled by unelected D.C. agencies.
SJR5 gives us the opportunity to propose real solutions: a balanced-budget amendment, term limits on career politicians, and clear boundaries on federal power. We could do away with the EPA and the Departments of Energy and Education, so Wyoming decides Wyoming issues again.
If legislators truly want to protect the Constitution and Wyoming, stop hoping Congress will tie its own hands, because that will never happen. Pass SJR5 in the House. Call the convention. Restore the republic the Founders entrusted to us.
Sam Galeotos is a Wyoming native, state advocate, and a leader of main street and national businesses based in Wyoming.
