Delegates originally considered a plan whereby Congress would call a convention to propose amendments when it received petitions from two-thirds of the states. They modified this to allow not only for state-requested conventions — none have convened to date — but also for two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress to propose amendments.
Such amendments become effective when ratified, according to congressional specification, either by three-fourths of the state legislatures or by conventions called within the states, as in the case of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed a national prohibition on alcohol.
By requiring supermajorities, delegates hoped to establish amendments, like the Constitution itself, as paramount law. One guarded the compromise allowing states to import slaves without penalty for a period of 20 years, and the other affirmed the critical Connecticut compromise by prohibiting states from being deprived of their equal representation in the U.
Senate without their consent. From time to time, scholars have argued that some rights, such as those embodied in the First Amendment, might be so fundamental that they cannot be altered through the amending process, but no Supreme Court decision has ever been based on this theory.
The original Constitution prohibited religious-test oaths for public officials, exempted Sundays from the days that a president had to return a bill, and protected members of Congress for words they uttered within that body, but the delegates rejected a proposal to protect freedom of the press or for a separate bill of rights.
The Anti-Federalists cited this as a reason for opposing the Constitution during ratification debates. Although leading Federalists initially argued that a bill of rights was unnecessary and could even prove dangerous, in time they eventually supported a bill of rights as a way of heading off the possibility of a second convention that might undo the work of the first.
James Madison led the drive in the First Congress that resulted in the adoption of the first ten amendments, the first of which addresses religion, speech, press, and peaceable assembly and petition.
Some of these proposals, such as one supported in the twentieth century by the National Association of Evangelicals, advocated specifically acknowledging the authority of Jesus Christ. In , House Speaker James G. Blaine of Maine introduced an amendment , named after him, that would have applied the religion clauses of the First Amendment to the states and prohibited public support of parochial schools. Members of Congress have similarly introduced amendments that would reverse the Supreme Court decisions in Engel v.
Vitale and Abington School District v. Schempp , prohibiting public prayer and devotional Bible reading in public schools.
But none has been able to overcome the high bar set by Article 5. The Archivist has delegated many of the ministerial duties associated with this function to the Director of the Federal Register. Neither Article V of the Constitution nor section b describe the ratification process in detail.
The Archivist and the Director of the Federal Register follow procedures and customs established by the Secretary of State, who performed these duties until , and the Administrator of General Services, who served in this capacity until NARA assumed responsibility as an independent agency in The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.
None of the 27 amendments to the Constitution have been proposed by constitutional convention. The Congress proposes an amendment in the form of a joint resolution. Since the President does not have a constitutional role in the amendment process, the joint resolution does not go to the White House for signature or approval.
The OFR adds legislative history notes to the joint resolution and publishes it in slip law format. The OFR also assembles an information package for the States which includes formal "red-line" copies of the joint resolution, copies of the joint resolution in slip law format, and the statutory procedure for ratification under 1 U. State legislatures often call upon Congress to propose constitutional amendments. While these calls may bring some political pressure to bear, Congress is under no constitutional obligation to respond.
The U. Constitution does not contain a provision requiring Congress to submit a proposed amendment upon request by some requisite number of states.
In addition to constitutional amendments proposed by Congress, states have the option of petitioning Congress to call a constitutional convention.
Legislatures in two-thirds of states must agree, however. While the convention process has yet to be triggered, efforts to do so are not new. Interest in a U. In the early s, direct election of senators was a hot topic. In the s and s, federal taxing power was the focus of many applications. Two issues came close to triggering conventions during the s to s—apportionment and a balanced federal budget.
The current wave of interest began around Its focus is not a single issue nor is it being driven by one organization. Various groups are pushing their viewpoints—be they conservative, liberal, populist or progressive—and are urging action. 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, campaign finance reform, congressional term limits or federal debt.
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