Story highlights Texas governor wants constitutional convention to pass nine new amendments

Plan would bolster state power at expense of federal government

Constitutional scholar calls plan a legal "black hole"

Marco Rubio has offered similar proposal on trail and in recent op-ed

(CNN) Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday revealed his plans for a "convention of the states," the first in more than 200 years, as part of a larger effort to reshape the U.S. Constitution and expand states' rights.

"We are succumbing to the caprice of man that our Founders fought to escape," Abbott said in a statement followed by a speech at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. "The cure to these problems will not come from Washington, D.C. Instead, the states must lead the way."

Abbott, despite deep ties to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, has yet to endorse a candidate in the GOP's 2016 presidential primary race, but he might now have some common cause with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who in scattered comments over the past month and then more explicitly in a USA Today op-ed on Wednesday, proposed a constitutional convention as a means of "reduc(ing) the size and scope of the federal government."

Rubio's spokesman Alex Conant told CNN on Friday, "It's great to have (Gov. Abbott's) support for the convention of states."

Rubio has suggested enacting term limits on federal legislators and Supreme Court justices, and creating a balanced budget amendment.

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