Who invented the anti-convention talking points?

As explained in several posts on this website—here, for example, and here—the principal talking points exploited today by both right-wing and left-wing convention opponents were invented in the 20th century by prominent establishment liberals with close ties to the D.C. “swamp.”

Those talking points then were disseminated by liberal media, particularly the New York Times and the Washington Post—both of which are agenda setters for the wider mainstream media. Their role is described in this Article V Information Center study.

Most of the “credit” for invention goes to six individuals writing in academic journals.  Below I’ve listed the six and provided links to their articles. Following the list are some other early disseminators of anti-convention claims. The “contributions” of each are discussed in this paper on the subject.

* Charles Black, a highly influential and very liberal Yale law professor. He started calling an Article V convention a “constitutional convention,” and falsely claimed Congress could regulate it. His two articles are here and here.
* Gerald Gunther, who clerked for Chief Justice Earl Warren during the court’s most activist phase. His article is here.
* Walter Dellinger, who clerked for liberal-activist justice Hugo Black during the same phase. His articles are here and here. He later became a high ranking official in the Clinton administration.
* William Swindler, a personal friend of Chief Justice Warren Burger. His article is here.
* Laurence Tribe, who clerked for Justice Potter Stewart during the same period and also was allied with the Kennedys. He invented the supposedly “unanswerable questions” about a convention. That article is here.
* Arthur Goldberg, another member of the Kennedy clan, who served as John F. Kennedy’s Secretary of Labor and briefly on the Supreme Court. He invented the “Madison opposed amendments conventions” myth. His article is here.

Others in the Washington, D.C. political establishment were involved in promoting misinformation about the amendment process. Theodore Sorensen, for example, was a speechwriter for the Kennedy clan. Millard Tidings was a Senator from Maryland. Emanuel Celler was the long-time chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. Their roles, and the roles of others like them, is described by Russell Caplan in his book, Constitutional Brinksmanship (Oxford Univ. Press, 1988).