William “Bill” Marshall, a University of North Carolina law professor, is speaking in room WW17 this morning on a potential Article V constitutional convention, saying it couldn’t be limited in scope to any particular topic. “There are no such guarantees,” Marshall said. “This is uncharted territory.”

More than 30 people are gathered for the lecture, including a half-dozen lawmakers; it runs from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. today. Last week, former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn was here pitching the idea of an Article V constitutional convention; one bill already has been introduced calling for Idaho to petition for such a convention to enact a balanced budget amendment.

Marshall said, “We should not now abandon the very document that has held us together as a nation for over two and one quarter centuries. Rewriting the Constitution is a dangerous errand that would not only unravel the legal ties that have kept us together for so long but would also undermine our sense of national identity and the way that view ourselves as a people.”