In 1786 the Constitutional Convention threw out the Articles of Confederation for today's Constitution. Did they leave any leeway in the Constitution for a similar overhaul?

by chikindiner

This thread made me think of this. Did the Founding Fathers give us room to essentially recreate the US government the way they did?

amanforallsaisons

Not sure this is actually "Ask Historians" so much as "Ask Constitutional Lawyers," with a dash of parliamentary procedure, but I'll try to ELI5 it.

Article V of the Constitution states the ways that the U.S. Constitution can be amended:

  1. 2/3rds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

  2. if 2/3 of the state legislatures (currently 34) request a Constitutional Convention to amend the Constitution.

The first method is how every amendment has been passed to date.

A Constitutional Convention would, in its normal power of proposing amendments, be able to amend the Constitution such that, essentially, they would strike through the whole thing, and start from scratch.

That's the mechanism that the Founders put in place by which to alter (or abolish) the Constitution.