A PoliSci Prof’s Note on Amendments

(Forgive my need to clarify, but is it in my blood)

I would remind everyone that the President has no actual power over the amendment process, and what he did today was symbolic only. To amend the Constitution a formal proposal must be made by either passing 2/3rds of both House of Congress, or via a convention called by Congress at the request of 2/3rds of the states. If the idea is formally proposed in one of the manner’s listed above, then the proposal can be ratified by either the approval of 3/4ths of state legislatures, or 3/4ths of conventions called at the state level.

It is noteworthy that of the thousands of attempts at formally proposing an amendment, only 33 have escaped the gravitational pull of the Congress (and 12 of those were part of the original package that would be become the first ten amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights). Of the 33 that have gone to the state, 27 have been approved.

In short: amending the constitution is hard, as apart from the Bill of Right we have only done it 17 times since the 1790s.

A few notes: 1) we have never had a convention under the current constitution, and 2) if a proposal is sent to the ratification process, the proposal will delineate the method of ratification—and of the 33 that have passed the proposal stage, 32 have gone to state legislatures, and only 1 has gone to state-level conventions: the repeal of prohibition.

Posted by Steven Taylor at February 24, 2024 05:12 PM | TrackBack