808 GOODLATTE, Virginia JOHN CONYERS, JR. Michigan
CHAIRMAN RANKING MEMBER

F. JAMES SENSENSRENNER, JR., Wisconsin G

SHEILA JACK:

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS STEVE COHEN, Ten

Congress of the Wnited States

House of Representatives
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

Puerto Rico

2138 Raysurn House OFFice BUILDING

WasuineTon, DC 20515-6216

Michigan

MIKE BISHOP, Michigan

(202) 225-3951

http:/www.house.gov/judiciary

August 29, 2016

The Honorable Karen Haas

Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Capitol, Room H154

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Madam Clerk,

Pursuant to section 3(c) of House Resolution 5 (114th Congress), I hereby designate the
attached Memorial from the State of Mississippi, received by the House of Representatives in the
year 1973, as purporting to be an application of the State legislature calling for a convention for
proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States pursuant to Article V, and request
that you make it publicly available.

Si ely,
Bob Goodlatte

Chairman


HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 55

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION APPLYING TO THE CONGRESS FOR A CONVENTION TO
PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.

Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Mississippi,
the Senate concurring:

That the Legislature of the State of Mississippi, pursuant to Article
V of the Constitution of the United States, hereby makes application to the
Congress of the United States to call a convention for proposing the fol-
lowing amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

No student shall be assigned to nor compelled to attend any particular
public school on account of race, religion, color or national origin; and, be
it further

Resolved, That this application constitutes a continuing application
in accordance with Article V of the Constitution of the United States until
at least two-thirds of the legislatures of the several states have made
similar applications pursuant to Article V. If Congress proposes an amend-
ment to the Constitution identical with that contained in this resolution
before January 1, 1974, this application for a state application shall no
longer be of any force or effect; and, be it further

Resolved, That since this method of proposing amendments to the
Constitution has never been completed to the point of calling a convention
and no interpretation of the power of the states in the exercise of this
right has ever been made by any court or any qualified tribunal, if there
be such, and since the exercise of the power is a matter of basic sovereign
rights and the interpretation thereof is primarily in the sovereign govern-
ment making such exercise and since the power to use such right in full
also carries the power to use such right in part the Legislature of the
State of Mississippi interprets Article V to mean that if two-thirds of
the states make application for a convention to propose an identical
amendment to the Constitution for ratification with a limitation that such
amendment be the only matter before it, that such convention would have
power only to propose the specified amendment and would be limited to such
proposal and would not have power to vary the text thereof nor would it
have power to propose other amendments on the same or different propositions;
and, be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be dispatched to the President
of the United States, to the President of the United States Senate, to the
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and to each member of
the Mississippi delegation to the United States Congress.

ADOPTED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ADOPTED BY THE SENATE
February 19, 1973 March, 2, 1973

CII e
i Ans THE HOUSE Ve eae PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE

Re'd aliz2\73J_