During a Friday address, Gov. Abbott expressed the convention would be a response to the attacks on the Constitution by President Barack Obama’s executive branch, Congress and the Supreme Court.
The proposal, which Abbott dubbed “The Texas Plan,” would involve the nine following amendments.
Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State.
Require Congress to balance its budget.
Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from creating federal law.
Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from preempting state law.
Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision.
Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically-enacted law.
Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution.
Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds.
Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a federal law or regulation.
Abbott stressed his plan would strengthen the 10th Amendment which states, "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Throughout his address, Abbott also warned that the federal government was straying from the path laid out by the founding fathers.
"These increasingly frequent departures from Constitutional principles are destroying the rule of law foundation on which this country was built," Abbott said. "We are succumbing to the caprice of man that our founders fought to escape. The cure to these problems will not come from Washington D.C. They must come from the states."
