18 

 The Justices advised that the question was one of federal 

 law, and so could not be answered authoritatively by them. Never- 

 theless they agreed that a convention called under Article XIII, 

 Section 1 of the state Constitution would be authorized to act 

 upon the proposed federal constitutional amendment, n majority 

 thought a convention called by the legislature without first 



submitting to the people the issue of convention or no convention 



23 

 would not be valid for any purpose, -^ 



jinother request was made by the General Assembly for the 



opinion of the Justices as to whether the legislature could call 



for a vote of the people on the convention question at a special 



election in November 1933. ^^ majority of the Justices concluded 



that a convention called in this way would be valid for the purpose 



oh 



contemplated. Chief Justice Stacy agreed, and went on to point 

 out that in providing for the calling of a convention for the pur- 

 pose of acting on a federal constitutional amendment, the General 

 ^.ssembly may proceed under article XIII, Section 1, "or it may 

 call such convention in the exercise of its plenary powers without 

 regard to the provisions of said section," ^ The convention 



7f, 

 question was accordingly submitted to the people in November 1933 » 



and the proposed convention was rejected by a substantial majority. 



^3 opinions of the Justices in the Matter of Calling; a Con- 

 vention , 20'^ N.C, 806 (1933). 

 2¥ld, at 811-817, 



^^Id, at 81U, 



^"^ Public Laws 1933 . C, 403. 



