Among the many, many nightmare scenarios we face as Donald Trump and his band of anti-government zealots march back into the White House is the looming threat of a constitutional convention.

The United States has not had a constitutional convention since 1787, which is the only time that representatives from each state gathered to work on the country's founding document. Still, the Constitution has a provision in it that allows for another convention to be called at any time if two-thirds of state legislatures — that would be 34 out of 50 — want one. The trouble is, the Constitution dictates almost nothing about how such a convention would work, leading to even more nightmare scenarios.

Fearing the worst if Republican-led states begin ticking off a wish-list of anti-abortion, anti-civil-rights, and stringent budget-balancing measures they'd like to see added to the constitution, Democratic-led states are making sure to rescind any past requests they may have made for a constitutional convention.

As the New York Times reports, California is among these states, with state Senator Scott Wiener introducing legislation today that would rescind all seven active calls that have been made by the state for a convention, with the earliest dating back to 1911.

That earliest call for a convention was calling for an amendment that would make senators electable by popular vote of state residents, rather than by state legislatures as they had been previously. This was taken care of two years later, in 1913, with the ratification of the 17th amendment — which was passed by Congress and ratified by three quarters of the states, which is the other mechanism for amending the Constitution.

Ten other amendments have passed this way, as the Times notes, the most recent being the 27th Amendment, passed in 1992, which prevents members of Congress from giving themselves pay raises.

"I do not want California to inadvertently trigger a constitutional convention that ends up shredding the Constitution," Wiener tells the Times. He suggests that Republicans could try, through some math, to claim that 34 states had called for a convention, centering it on one topic like balancing the federal budget, but then letting it become a "runaway" convention in which more and more amendment begin piling on.

One right-wing congressman has been crowing about holding a constitutional convention for a while now, and that is West Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington — who as recently as last week spoke out during a budget hearing saying that a convention should have been called in 1979, based on the number of states calling for one as of that time, calling this a "a constitutional travesty."

With 18 state legislatures currently led by Democrats and four others that are split between the parties, getting to 34 could prove difficult for the Republican side, unless they try to argue that these historic calls by states like California should still count. And any actual amendment would still require ratification by three-quarters of the states, or 37 of them.

New York, New Jersey, Oregon, and Illinois have all similarly rescinded their historic calls, the oldest of which dated back to 1789.

This very utilitarian website called Article V Library keeps track of all the applications by states for constitutional conventions, as well as recissions like those above (minus the one from New York). There have been 450 applications total, according to the site, including two each in the last three years by the states of Oklahoma, Missouri, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. These call for new congressional term limits, a balanced-budget requirement, a federal debt limit, and a repeal of the 16th Amendment that created a federal income tax, among other things.

As the Times further notes, if Wiener's legislation goes through, it would rescind a call for a constitutional convention made by Governor Gavin Newsom last year to discuss a gun-control amendment that would ban military-style assault weapons, and establish universal background checks. Critics have said this was just political grandstanding by Newsom and had no hope of getting anywhere given the country's current political divide.

Meanwhile, not all Democrats are heeding the danger warnings on the convention thing. Just last week, a Democratic assemblymember in New Jersey, Andrea Katz, introduced a resolution pushing for a constitutional convention to protect abortion and IVF access. It's not clear how much support that has in the legislature, given that New Jersey has already rescinded its earlier requests.

Top image: California State Senator Scott Wiener speaks at a "Just Majority" nationwide bus tour press conference to call for reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court on May 16, 2023 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Demand Justice)

Briefly touched upon last week when the final batch of Prop 8 donor names unfurled, Utah citizens and the LDS Church spent more on getting Prop. 8 passed than previously known. According to the Salt Lake Tribune:

Utahans and the LDS Church spent significantly more than previously reported on last-minute efforts to push passage of California's ban of same-sex marriage, newly filed financial disclosures show.

Donations from as many as 1,025 individual and businesses in Utah to both sides of the Proposition 8 campaign totaled about $3.8 million, according to new filings with California's secretary of state, with more than 70 percent going to groups supporting the successful measure.

This is unnerving. And, most disconcerting, not at all surprising.

The California State Supreme court will begin hearing arguments on Prop 8 starting March 5. Be sure to watch it all go down at 9am on the California Channel. (Also, hey, no way, we have a California Channel! Who knew?)

Check out Stop8.org for comprehensive coverage about civil marriage equality in California.

And it's not just individuals; four SF companies have have launched attacks on local families, too:
- Blackford Construction gave $200
- Visionary Electronics gave $99
- Large Format Computing gave $1500
- Malta and Co, located in the Richmond, gave $100 (and Elena Malta gave another $100)

Malta and Co already seems to be suffering a bit of Yelp-retribution for its anti-marriage stance. Of course, these people and companies might object to their donations being made the subject of scrutiny -- and we can certainly understand that. It must be simply awful to have strangers involving themselves in your private life. To have people you don't even know talking about your values and personal decisions -- why, that must feel simply .

Is this conversation sort of like how the Yes On 8 campaign threatened to publish the names of donors to marriage equality? Well, yes. Yes, it is. Thanks for the idea!

Disclosure: SFist_Matt is working on a stop-prop-8 project.

Hey gay couples! You're in terrible danger. Fortunately, we can help. Well, not exactly -- SFist_Matt, to be specific, has taken a break from writing stern emails to Muni, and is now working on a really neat online video project to protect marriage equality.

Check out Stop8.org -- Matt's working on a series of 30-second documentary videos, explaining who California's gay spouses are, why the freedom to marry is so important to us all, and what everyone stands to lose if Prop 8 (the anti-marriage Constitutional amendment) passes in November. The Prop 8 people are going after gay marriage now -- they want is the power to control who can get married and who can't. Who knows what kind of "impure" unions they'll target next? This is an important showdown for all of us: gay, straight, and whatever.

If you're a gay couple and you'd like to help out, drop Matt a line at contact - at - stop8 - dot - org. He'd like to sit down and interview you for a half hour or so, This-American-Life-style.

And if you're not a gay couple, you can still be a part of it; create a 5-second video clip of yourself saying "I'm voting No On 8" and email it (in whatever format you like) to the same address, contact - at - stop8 - dot - org. Or take a photo of yourself with an "I'm Voting No On 8" sign and tag it noon8.

There's lots that you can do to help; so do something. Please. It's important.