Just nine states have approved identically worded applications to convene. (Getty Images)
A national movement to launch a convention and amend congressional term limits into the Constitution is gaining momentum in Indiana.
Consecutive legislative attempts failed to get past the committee stage. Last year, the Indiana House passed a resolution but it didn’t get a Senate hearing. This year, the Senate has jumped into the fray, passing a resolution despite bipartisan opposition.
Critics fear a “runaway” convention could jeopardize rights already enshrined in the Constitution, while supporters maintain there are enough safeguards in state law and point to legislation that would further strengthen them. Senate Joint Resolution 21‘s author, meanwhile, hopes to pressure Congress into limiting itself.
Hoosier lawmakers in 2016 approved a multi-topic take featuring language on term limits, fiscal restraint and more. But the nationwide campaign hinges on identically worded applications — exclusively about term limits — for a convention under Article V of the Constitution.
That year, the District of Columbia-based U.S. Term Limits (USTL) launched its convention-based push. If Indiana approves its latest attempt, the state would join nine others who’ve adopted USTL’s language. Two-thirds of the states — 34 — are needed to trigger the convention.
Mixed track record
A convention to amend the Constitution has never before been held. All of the nation’s existing amendments began in Congress and later went to the states for ratification.
Throughout the decades, Americans have unsuccessfully pushed to trigger conventions on topics like desegregation busing, abortion and a balanced federal budget.
USTL’s effort is among the latest campaigns.
Hoosier lawmakers, all of them Republicans, have repeatedly filed joint resolutions housing USTL language five times since 2016.
But attempts introduced in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023 didn’t get committee votes and died. Some were even sent to their respective chambers’ rules committee, where legislation dead on arrival is often sent to fail.
Indiana House approves congressional ask for term limits in Constitution
In 2024, a House-filed version passed on a 63-32 tally featuring “no” votes from both sides of the aisle. It got no consideration from a Senate committee and died.
This legislative session, Senate Joint Resolution 21 earned Senate approval in a 31-18 vote — in January, well ahead of deadlines. Now, it’s back at the House for consideration.
The USTL application specifies that the convention should be a “limited” one, just for amendments restricting the number of times U.S. House and Senate members can be elected to their posts. It describes how it should be aggregated only with same-subject applications and separately, sent to other state legislatures as an “invitation to join in this call.”
Indiana’s top two leaders have indicated support for USTL.
Gov. Mike Braun signed the organization’s Article V convention pledge last March while campaigning for his current office. So did Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, weeks earlier. Beckwith also chaired USTL’s Indiana chapter until he ascended to his present role.
Disagreements on ‘limited’ convention
Ahead of the Senate’s vote, Democrats and Republicans alike feared there’s no way to limit a convention to any single topic.
Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville, dubbed the effort a “mistake.”
“I don’t think for a minute … that these other states that we’re going to be in the mix with on this won’t find some way to open that Constitution up and dice around on it, make changes to it,” he said. “I think it’s risky. I think the odds are against us.”
Tomes argued that voters can already term limit lawmakers at the ballot box.
The week before the vote, Sen. J.D. Ford introduced an unsuccessful edit adding redistricting to the convention call.
“If you read Article V, it does not have any other rules about the convention. It doesn’t say who presides. It doesn’t talk about who pays for it,” Ford said at the time. “… Our application says U.S. term limits, but once we get in there, it could be a runway convention. It could be any topic on the chopping block.”
A study by the Congressional Research Service, updated in 2016, found that the Constitution is silent on Congress’ role in the convention, the president’s role, how many delegates states can send — equal numbers, by population or just as many as they wish — and other open questions.
Resolution author Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, said a runaway convention “simply won’t happen” — and that he didn’t even intend to launch a limited one.
He asserted “history has shown” that when the applications near the two-thirds requirement, Congress will take action.
An early 1900s campaign to amend direct election of U.S. senators into the Constitution ultimately yielded the 17th Amendment — not because states racked up enough applications, but because Congress itself took up the topic.
Zay described his resolution as a “nudge.”
Senators expressed other concerns.
Several criticized the effort to restrict congressional service while leaving the Statehouse unaffected. Numerous attempts to limit state-level tenures have died through the years.
“What message do we send to the public when we say … ‘We’re limiting your (congressional) offices, we don’t want you to take advantage of being a career politician, but the moment that it touches my seat — my position, my influence, my power — then I’m opposed to it?’” Sen. Fady Qaddoura asked fellow lawmakers.
The Indianapolis Democrat said he did support term limits but would vote against the resolution until he saw a more “comprehensive” version with other election fixes.
Sen. Aaron Freeman echoed that argument of hypocrisy. The Indianapolis Republican also asserted that term limits would afford staffers and lobbyists more power and push “the swamp to get a whole lot swampier.”
Author Zay said the Indiana General Assembly doesn’t need term limits.
“Why? Because we go home on Thursday — every Thursday — and we are out of here at the end of April this year and mid-March in in-between years. We are the embodiment of a part-time legislature,” Zay said. “We are public servants that … face our people every day of the week.”
Sen. Jim Buck, R-Kokomo, described the professional and financial costs lawmakers at all levels pay to serve the public. Forcing them out of office early, he argued, would bring in “a completely different class of elected officials” instead of a government “of the people.”
Sen. Travis Holdman, who led the Senate’s successful multi-topic resolution that included congressional term limits, said that’s fine.
“We’ve heard about how this may disrupt the lives of members of Congress — good, because our lives are disrupted and our businesses are disrupted by what we do here as part-time legislators,” Holdman, R-Markle, said. “… I think the framers intended, originally, with the Constitution and the federal government, that they be part-time legislators.”
‘Faithful delegate’ bill would add to current law
Indiana Code already requires delegates to an Article V convention to swear to support the state and federal constitutions, plus “faithfully” perform their duties and follow any legislative instructions.
Convention votes cast outside that scope are “void,” according to the law, and someone who purposefully casts such a vote commits a Level 6 felony.
Congressional term limits advocates want to add more guardrails.
Senate Bill 450, authored by Holdman, would require the Indiana General Assembly to adopt another joint resolution banning a delegate — or commissioner, as it renames the role — from voting to amend certain parts of the Constitution. Those include the storied document’s first seven articles, the first 10 amendments collectively known as the Bill of Rights, and a list of other amendments dealing with the abolition of slavery, voting rights, the Electoral College and more.
Sen. Sue Glick, R-LaGrange, argued that’s ineffective.
“We can pass all these resolutions that say an Indiana delegate (is) … guilty of a felony if they don’t do what they’re told; we can bring them home,” she said. “And 49 other states are going to laugh because they get to decide what the Constitution of the United States looks like, because Indiana took its Tinker toys and went home.”
She urged lawmakers to consider the “dangers” of an Article V convention within the nation’s current political atmosphere.
“This is not a vacuum. Do you think the First Amendment is going to survive? Do you think the Second Amendment is going to survive? Do you think you will have the same freedoms that were guaranteed to you?” Glick asked. “I don’t see all the same kind of intellects who will be attending this convention that attended the first one.”
Holdman’s bill also would narrow who can serve as a commissioner using stricter residency, anti-lobbying and anti-criminal history provisions. Commissioners would also be barred from accepting gratuities — with exceptions for gifts valued under $200, “primarily ceremonial or commemorative” items, properly reported political contributions and work-related compensation.
“This isn’t the end of our democracy,” Zay said of his resolution. “This is simply a statement to our friends in Washington … that maybe 50 years is a little too long.”
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