The Framers knew that there was no way to make a constitution built to solve problems for all the years to come. Thus, the Constitution provides for its own amendment, changes in its written words. Article V sets out two methods for the proposal and two methods for the ratification of constitutional amendments. This process is known as the formal amendment, changes or additions that become part of the written language to the Constitution itself. So the formal amendment process has four different methods to amending the Constitution, each with only two steps.


The four different ways in which amendments may be added to the Constitution are shown to the left. All but one of the 27 amendments were proposed in Congress and then ratified by the State legislatures.




Method One:
An amendment may be proposed by a two-thirds vote in each house of Congress and be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. Today, three-fourths of the states is equivalent to 38 states, therefore, 38 State legislatures must approve an amendment for it to become a part of the Constitution. This method has been used on twenty-six of the Constitution's 27 Amendments.




Method Two:
An amendment may be proposed by two-thirds of Congress and then ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the States. Only the 21st Amendment was adopted in this manner. Conventions were used to ratify the 21st Amendment because Congress felt that the conventions' popularity-elected-delegates would likely reflect public opinion of the repeal of nationwide prohibition than State legislatures would.



Method Three:
An amendment may be proposed by a national convention by Congress of two-thirds (today, 34) of the state legislatures and then be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. To this point today, Congress has not called such a convention.




Method Four:
An amendment may be proposed by a national convention and then be ratified by conventions in three-fourths of the States. Much of the Constitution itself was adopted in this same way.





Standards | Six Basic Principles | Formal Amendment | Informal Amendment | Face the Issues | Bearing the Constitution

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