Page Thirteen

Friends of the Article V Convention (FOAVC) was founded in February 2007. It was the first national non-partisan organization dedicated to bringing about an Article V convention call by Congress. The reason for FOAVC founding was public record proved the states had applied in sufficient number to cause a convention call. Congress was unconstitutionally ignoring the applications. The FOAVC Founders realized there was no source which provided easy access to this public record nor provided accurate information about an Article V Convention.

Before FOAVC was founded, all the information about a convention came from anti-convention sites such as the John Birch Society (JBS). Examination of this information revealed it to be factually incorrect, incomplete, inadequate and clearly biased in favor of the anti-convention campaign of the site. The FOAVC Founders believed the public deserved absolute accurate and correct information about a convention in order to base their judgment on documented facts rather than biased information. For this reason FOAVC was born. Unlike other Article V Convention groups FOAVC is non-partisan. FOAVC favors no particular amendment proposal. This policy has resulted in broad political support and membership from both sides of the political aisle.

The goal of FOAVC is to provide factual information about an Article V Convention based on documented public record. Using this public record FOAVC has corrected misstatements about an Article V Convention by both opponent and proponent alike neither of which is as thorough in their research as FOAVC. These corrections has resulted in many groups "changing their tune" about an Article V Convention or in some instances dropping their argument altogether. Other sites offer similar information as FOAVC but expose the reader to biased reporting in order to advance the political agenda of that site. At FOAVC we print the full public record presenting the original documentation so the reader can examine it unfiltered by any political agenda.

FOAVC was the first organization in history to gather the record of state applications for a convention call based on records published in the Congressional Record. Unlike previous records of state applications which only provided a Congressional Record citation but did not provide the full text of the Congressional Record, FOAVC went a step further and provided links to photographic copies of the Congressional Record pages thus enabling the reader to view the full text printed in the Congressional Record. The FOAVC record provides the most in-depth view of the state applications available. It enables the reader not only to discover which states have applied for a convention call (and how many times the states have satisfied the two thirds requirement of Article V) but to read the full text of the applications and know what is actually being proposed by the state in its application.

The scope and difficulties of this project can only be appreciated when it is understood neither Congress or the National Archives has, until recently, ever cataloged state applications. The government provided no page index in the Congressional Record listing the location of the state applications. As a result, the applications were literally scattered through millions of pages of government records with no method of retrieval provided by the government. This meant the only way to locate the state applications was to go through millions of pages of Congressional Record and extract the state applications from them. As most of the Congressional Record is not online this involved going to the National Archives and photographically copying these pages from the Congressional Record.

This lack of proper document inventory was further complicated by the fact only the Senate of the United States through most of the history of Congress, actually published the full text of the application while the House of Representatives simply published a brief reference to the submission often without citation (such as reference to the state's resolution title number for example). Thus direct comparison between the Senate record and House record is impossible. Further the publication dates of House and Senate were often months apart--sometimes years. (For example, the first application received by Congress in 1789 was published in the congressional record of that time in 1835).

Between the dates of publication other state applications might appear meaning there was no way to be entirely sure which House reference matched which Senate reference. In some cases applications were published twice in the Congressional Record from the same chamber on different dates. In some instances only one chamber published the record with no corresponding publication in the other chamber. Complicating the matter further was the fact as of November, 2016 Congress still has no official recording method for receipt of state applications. Thus applications were received and stored haphazardly by Congress in the records of various congressional committees. This made determination of their whereabouts in the archival record even more difficult.

Indeed the entire process of archiving applications presents a problem. The Constitution has no sunset provision for state applications for an Article V Convention. Thus applications remain effectual until they have achieved their constitutional purpose: the calling of a convention by Congress based on those applications. Unlike most records in a session of Congress which are considered archival at the end of the sessions, applications are "current" public records as their constitutional life extends beyond a single congressional session. (If this were not so, Congress could easily defeat any attempt by the states to call a convention by simply ending its session before the necessary two thirds applications were submitted). The applications should never have been archived by Congress in the first place.

Instead (as stated by Congress in May, 1789 when discussing the disposition of the first state application) Congress should have recorded the applications in a separate record of the congressional record of the time (carrying that record forward from session to session) until sufficient applications existed "to obtain their object." The applications were instead archived with no ongoing tabulation provided by Congress in its congressional record and thus ignored. The result has been hundreds of state applications accumulating in the Congressional Record causing several sets of applications to be created each constitutionally requiring a convention call with no corresponding action on the part of Congress.

Recently however Congress began extraction of the actual application records submitted by the states heretofore stored in the National Archives. FOAVC was denied access to this source when it created its list due to congressional rules on records storage. As the congressional list has become available FOAVC has added it to its own list providing multiple citations and references for the reader to examine. In many instances the new information has enabled FOAVC to at last begin consolidation of its list in order to present the most accurate picture possible of state applications. FOAVC has always had a strict policy of absolute accuracy.

Nothing is stated unless referenced with public record or if a statement is made the reference supporting it can be readily provided if required. Thus, as FOAVC had no way to determine which House references matched which Senate record, it choose to publish all applications as individual records resulting in a figure of approximately 750 citations of applications in the Congressional Record. With new congressional information and renewed examination of the Congressional Record FOAVC has been able to consolidate its list and place applications from House and Senate together. This has resulted in reduction of the number of applications presented (approximately 550 applications) but which FOAVC believes presents a more accurate representation of the state application record in Congress.

The application list is but a part of the effort by FOAVC to provide the most up-to-date and accurate information about an Article V Convention. FOAVC continues to provide the most complete and accurate information about an Article V Convention possible.

In 1973 Judge Brennan resigned from the court to devote full time to the Thomas M. Cooley Law School (now known as Western Michigan Cooley Law School) located in Lansing, Michigan which he founded in 1972. He was the school's first full time Dean later serving as president beginning in 1978 until his retirement in 2002. He also served on the Board of Directors from 1972 until 2002. Western Michigan Cooley Law School now has over 11,000 alumni and is the largest accredited law school in the nation. Cooley has three campuses in Michigan (Lansing, Auburn Hills, and Grand Rapids) and one in Tampa Bay, Florida.

During his tenure at Cooley Law School, Judge Brennan founded the Cooley Legal Authors Society, the Student Bar Association, the Scholastic Review Board, The Thomas M. Cooley Law Review, and was instrumental in designing the school's year-round, three-divisional system.

Judge Brennan has written numerous legal articles throughout his career. Among them are his articles on the challenges of starting the Thomas M Cooley Law School (Click on image to read). Other articles by Judge Brennan are: Library Dedication (2002); Commencement Remarks (2002); Lessons in Leadership (2001) and Personal Views (2001).

Thomas E. Brennan has been a leading proponent of an Article V Convention since 1982 with the publication of his historic "Return to Philadelphia" article in the Cooley Law Review. He frequently comments on an Article V Convention on his blog. He has also led the effort to organize a virtual Article V Convention on the Internet with the organization he founded, ConventionUSA.org.

Tom Brennan passed on September 29, 2018. RIP.

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John De Herrera

John De Herrera worked with Bill Walker to get his landmark suit to the USSC, which was discovered by Tom Brennan, which led to the founding of FOAVC; the year of 2022 marks his twenty-first year of legal and political activism for Article V of the U.S. Constitution.

Now a full-time writer activist promoting reforms in American democracy, Dr. Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author

of "Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government." (Click on Image to read more about Delusional Democracy). He advocates a Second American Revolution beginning with an Article V Convention to propose amendments. He has written numerous articles in support of an Article V Convention which can read on page 3 of our website. Mr. Hirschhorn was Chair of the Independent Party of Maryland in 2008.

Dr. Hirschhorn received a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1961, an M.S in Metallurgical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1962 and a PhD in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1965. He was a full professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison from 1965 to 1978 and provided management consulting to many small and large domestic and foreign companies. Dr. Hirschhorn has been a consultant to industrial and chemical companies, DOE laboratories, state governments and public interest organizations. He has published more than 150 papers, articles, guest editorials and chapters in books on environmental science and technology. He worked at Hirschhorn and Associates, an environmental consulting firm, beginning in 1990.

From 1978 to 1990 Dr. Hirschhorn worked at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment from on such matters as hazardous waste management under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Superfund and cleanup technology, and pollution prevention and waste reduction. Dr. Hirschhorn participated in the drafting of the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments Act (HSWA) (1984) and testified 50 to 60 times before congressional committees. He also worked as a staff member for the National Governors Association.

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Bill Walker is a former journalist and newspaper publisher. He graduated from Washington State University with a BA in journalism. He has been active in the Article V Convention movement for twenty five years.

In 2000 Mr. Walker filed the first federal lawsuit in United States history (Walker v United States) specifically addressing the obligation of Congress to call an Article V Convention. Later, in 2004, Mr. Walker filed a second lawsuit (Walker v Members of Congress) which was appealed to the United States Supreme Court in 2006. While the suit was not reviewed by the Court, Mr. Walker nevertheless was able to cause the government to concede, for the first time in history, the method and terms of counting state applications used by Congress to cause a convention call which is a numeric count of applying states with no other terms or conditions. A detailed record of these suits may be found at http://www.FOAVC.org.

Mr. Walker was instrumental in helping to gather for the first time in United States history, the public record of state applications for a convention call into a single photographic record presenting the full text of the state applications. Previous 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 never previously listed in prior publications were uncovered in the Congressional Record and published for the first time.

Bill Walker has addressed symposiums on an Article V Convention at Cooley Law School and Harvard Law School. His remarks may be viewed here: (Cooley Law School: Part 1 , Part 2; Harvard Law School). He has published nearly a hundred articles on an Article V Convention.

Mr. Walker recently published a fictional romance novel entitled "Rache" which may be downloaded on Kindle by clicking on the picture to the right.

Sadly, Bill Walker passed at the end of March, 2020. Bill will be missed.