Republicans want to rewrite the Constitution to limit federal power but a former senator says a 'runaway' convention could spell danger for health care, education, and the environment

• Republicans have been plotting to rewrite the Constitution and limit federal power.
• Former Sen. Russ Feingold and scholar Peter Prindiville write in their new book that this could lead to drastic changes in government.

Republicans have campaigned behind the scenes for years now to change the Constitution through a gathering of 34 state legislatures known as a constitutional convention.

A constitutional convention, designated by Article V of the Constitution, would allow state legislatures to pass or ratify constitutional amendments without a governor's signature, Congress' intervention, or any input from the president.

Some Republicans attempt to use a convention, which has never been accomplished in U.S. history, to limit the federal governments spending and taxation powers and enact term limits on more federal officials.

Former Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and constitutional scholar Peter Prindiville write in their new book "The Constitution in Jeopardy" that a "runaway" convention has the potential to go off-script and create massive changes in how the federal government regulates laws concerning health care, education, and the environment.

Prindiville told the Times that the convention would operate as a "free-standing, distinct constitutional body" without clear guidance on how it would function because the rules of a constitutional convention were never detailed by the framers.

"Despite convention proponents' claims of legal certainty, the most important questions about how a convening held under Article V would be called and how it would function are unsettled," Feingold and Prindiville write in their book, according to the Times.

"The framers left no rules. In this uncertainty lies great danger and, possibly, great power."

Insider's Grace Panetta and Brent D. Griffiths previously reported on the Republican plan to assemble a constitutional convention to gut environmental regulations and education standards while making it more difficult for Washington, DC or territories like Puerto Rico to earn statehood.

Rob Natelson, a key Article V scholar in the movement to call a convention, previously dismissed the potential of a "runaway" convention to Insider.

The Convention of the States, which has ties to prominent Republicans like former Trump lawyer John Eastman, has pushed for narrow revisions of the Constitution that would limit "the power and jurisdiction" of the federal government.

David Super, a professor and Constitutional law expert at Georgetown University Law Center, told Insider that limiting the power of the federal government could actually result in extreme and broad changes.

"I defy you to name a Constitutional amendment that you might want that I couldn't characterize as one of the three things in the Convention of States," Super told Panetta and Griffiths. "You want to repeal the 14th Amendment Equal Protection Clause? That's limiting the power of the federal government to interfere with state laws. Almost anything you want, you can characterize as one of those things."

Nineteen states have so far passed a Convention of States' resolution — with five states making progress on the resolution — according to an Insider analysis. Three states — South Dakota, Iowa, and North Carolina — have Republican-led state legislatures.

Backers of a constitutional convention include Eastman, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Fox News personalities like Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

Natelson previously told Insider that he predicts there is a 50% chance the country will be able to form one within the next five years.