The Constitution: Ev's Amendment

For the past five years, Everett Dirksen has worked with evangelical zeal to press for a second constitutional convention. He aims to reverse by amendment the 1964 Supreme Court decision that state legislature districts must be drawn equitably on the sole basis of population: one man, one vote.

Dirksen's vehicle is a section of Article V of the Constitution, never before invoked. It specifies that "on the application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states," Congress "shall call a convention for proposing amendments." Before becoming part of the Constitution, provisions...