what is the process for adding an amendment to the constitution

April 12, 2022 Post a Comment

[LegisBrief] Amending the U.South. Constitution

Past Brenda Erickson | Vol . 25, No. 30 / August 2017

NCSL News

Current efforts by some state legislatures and other groups to amend the U.Due south. Constitution have brought along questions almost the process for doing then. The Founding Fathers, in crafting the Constitution, believed it should not be easy to improve the nation's founding certificate and principles.

Authority to Meliorate the U.South. Constitution

Article Five of the United States Constitution outlines basic procedures for constitutional amendment.

Congress may submit a proposed ramble amendment to the states, if the proposed amendment language is approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses.
Congress must call a convention for proposing amendments upon application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the states (i.eastward., 34 of 50 states).
Amendments proposed past Congress or convention become valid but when ratified by the legislatures of, or conventions in, three-fourths of u.s. (i.east., 38 of 50 states).

Amendments Proposed by Congress

To appointment, Congress has submitted 33 amendment proposals to the states, 27 of which were ratified. The 27^thursday Amendment, which prevents members of Congress from granting themselves pay raises during a current session, was ratified in 1992—202 years after it was get-go submitted to u.s..

The post-obit steps must be completed for an amendment proposed by Congress to be added to the United states Constitution.\

Step one. Passage by Congress. Proposed amendment language must exist approved by a two-thirds vote of both houses.

Footstep 2. Notification of the states. The national archivist sends notification and materials to the governor of each state.

Pace 3. Ratification by three-fourths of us. Ratification of the subpoena language adopted by Congress is an up-or-down vote in each legislative chamber. A country legislature cannot change the language. If information technology does, its ratification is invalid. A governor's signature on the ratification bill or resolution is not necessary.

Pace 4. Tracking state actions. Proposed amendments must exist ratified by 3-fourths of u.s.a. in order to take result. Congress may set a fourth dimension limit for state action. The official count is kept by Office of the Federal Annals at the National Archives. Legislatures must return specific materials to testify proof of ratification.

Step five. Declaration. When the requisite number of states ratify a proposed amendment, the archivist of the Us proclaims it every bit a new amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Actual certification is published immediately in the Federal Register and eventually in the Us Statutes-at-Large.

State legislatures often phone call upon Congress to advise constitutional amendments. While these calls may bring some political pressure to bear, Congress is under no constitutional obligation to respond. The U.S. Constitution does not contain a provision requiring Congress to submit a proposed subpoena upon asking by some requisite number of states.

Amendment past Constitutional Convention

In improver to constitutional amendments proposed by Congress, states take the option of petitioning Congress to telephone call a constitutional convention. Legislatures in two-thirds of states must agree, yet. While the convention process has still to be triggered, efforts to exercise so are not new. In fact, they may be "as old as the republic." Unofficial sources written report convention applications being filed as early on as 1789.

Interest in a U.S. constitutional convention has peaked and waned several times over the decades. In the early on 1900s, direct election of senators was a hot topic. In the 1940s and 1950s, federal taxing power was the focus of many applications. Two issues came close to triggering conventions during the 1960s to 1990s—circulation and a balanced federal budget.

The electric current wave of interest began around 2010. Its focus is not a single issue nor is it being driven by one organization. Diverse groups are pushing their viewpoints—be they conservative, liberal, populist or progressive—and are urging activeness. On the one hand, legislation calls for a convention on a broad array of topics, such as limiting authority of the federal government, balanced federal budget, entrada finance reform, congressional term limits or federal debt. On the other hand, some legislation proposes to rescind previous calls for a convention.

The volume of legislation introduced in state legislatures illustrates recent interest.

2011—78 bills or resolutions
2012—40 bills or resolutions
2013—62 bills or resolutions
2014—66 bills or resolutions
2015—65 bills or resolutions
2016—89 bills or resolutions
2017 (through July 12, 2017)—120 bills or resolutions

It is difficult to predict whether current efforts volition lead to a constitutional convention. And since an Article V convention has never been held, questions are being raised virtually when and how this may happen:

Does someone officially track convention applications?
Has an official list of the applications been created?
What constitutes an official application past a state legislature?
What is the proper process for enacting and submitting country legislative applications?
Must the language of u.s.' applications be identical?
Must the applications be made be made within a specific or relatively close timeframe?
May a legislature rescind its own awarding?
May a subsequent legislature rescind an awarding submitted past a previous legislature?
May the scope of the convention be limited?
May the country legislatures found the scope limit within their calls? Or is that a congressional function?