Iowan calls for constitutional amendment on Pledge of Allegiance

A top republican in the Iowa House says Iowa should call for a constitutional convention if Congress doesn’t act on this week’s ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance. House Majority Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says a constitutional amendment would preserve the pledge. Rants says the ruling tears at the fabric of who we are as a nation. Rants says the President and other leaders call on Americans to pray in troubled times. Rants says there should be no less than an amendment to the U-S constitution. He thinks the amendment should affirm the pledge and say it can be used in public places and in schools. There are two methods, he says, either Congress passes a constitutional amendment for states to ratify, or states themselves pass resolutions to convene a constitutional convention. If the Legislature did that, Rants said it would not merit a special session but could be taken up in the next regular session. Rants says he wouldn’t accept endorsing the pledge of allegiance the way it was originally composed, without the words “Under God.”