The U.S. Constitution is amended in two stages: a proposal stage requiring a two-thirds supermajority, and a ratification stage requiring approval from three-fourths of the states. Both stages are deliberately hard to clear, which is why only 27 amendments have been adopted out of roughly 11,985 measures introduced in Congress since 1789.1U.S. Senate. Measures Proposed to Amend the Constitution The framers built the process this way so that constitutional change would reflect broad, durable agreement rather than momentary political majorities.
Stage One: Proposing an Amendment
Article V provides two ways to propose an amendment. Every amendment ever adopted has come through the first: a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.2National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution A simple majority is not enough, and getting two-thirds of both chambers to agree on the exact wording of an amendment is one of the main reasons so few proposals ever leave Congress.
The second route has never been used. If two-thirds of state legislatures (currently 34 of 50) submit formal applications to Congress, Congress must call a national convention for proposing amendments.2National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution Organized campaigns have pursued this path over the years, but none has reached 34 states.
The convention method raises open questions that make states cautious. The biggest is scope. Supporters argue that Article V limits any convention to proposing amendments and that state applications can define the subject. Critics counter that once delegates assemble, nothing in the Constitution’s text clearly prevents them from going beyond their instructions. Because no convention has ever been called under Article V, there is no precedent, no Supreme Court ruling, and no established procedural rulebook.
Stage Two: Ratification by the States
Once proposed, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (currently 38 of 50) to become part of the Constitution.2National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution Congress decides which of two ratification methods the states will use.
The standard method sends the amendment to each state’s legislature. Twenty-six of the 27 ratified amendments took this path.3Legal Information Institute. Congressional Deadlines for Ratification of an Amendment The Constitution does not set the internal vote margin, and thresholds vary by state. Most require a simple majority in both chambers; a few demand more.
The alternative method requires each state to hold a special ratifying convention where elected delegates vote instead of state legislators. Congress has chosen this path exactly once, for the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition in 1933.4National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process The reasoning was strategic: Prohibition still had strong support in many legislatures, and repeal proponents believed specially elected delegates would better reflect public opinion.
When a state ratifies, it sends an original or certified copy of its ratification action to the Archivist of the United States. The Office of the Federal Register reviews the document for legal sufficiency and an authenticating signature before filing it.4National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process
How an Amendment Becomes Official
Reaching 38 states is not quite the final step. Under federal law, once the Archivist receives verified ratification documents from the required number of states, the Archivist must publish the amendment along with a certificate identifying the ratifying states and declaring it a valid part of the Constitution.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 1 U.S. Code 106b – Amendments to Constitution The Office of the Federal Register drafts the formal proclamation, and the certification is published in both the Federal Register and the U.S. Statutes at Large.4National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process
The Archivist’s role is purely administrative. The Archivist does not judge whether an amendment is a good idea or whether individual states ratified properly. The job is to verify that the required number of facially valid ratification documents have arrived and then publish the result.
Ratification Deadlines
Article V says nothing about time limits, but starting with the 18th Amendment in 1917, Congress began attaching deadlines to its proposals. A seven-year window has been standard for nearly every amendment proposed since.3Legal Information Institute. Congressional Deadlines for Ratification of an Amendment The Supreme Court upheld this practice in Dillon v. Gloss (1921), ruling that ratification must happen within a reasonable period and that Congress can define what “reasonable” means.
The most consequential deadline fight involves the Equal Rights Amendment. Congress proposed the ERA in 1972 with a seven-year window. By 1979, 35 states had ratified, three short of 38. Congress extended the deadline to 1982, but no additional states ratified before the extension expired. Decades later, Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020) ratified the ERA, bringing the total to 38. Supporters argued the threshold had been met. The Archivist has declined to certify the ERA, citing Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel opinions concluding that the deadline is legally enforceable and that the late ratifications came after it had expired.6National Archives. Statement on the Equal Rights Amendment Ratification Process Federal courts at the district and circuit levels have upheld that position, though the matter remains politically contested.
The 27th Amendment sits at the opposite end of the timeline. It bars Congress from giving itself an immediate pay raise and was proposed in 1789 with the original Bill of Rights package, without a ratification deadline. It languished for two centuries until a grassroots campaign in the 1980s revived it, and it cleared the 38-state threshold in 1992.7Legal Information Institute. U.S. Constitution Annotated Amendment XXVII – Congressional Compensation The 202-year gap between proposal and ratification is why Congress now routinely includes a deadline.
Can a State Take Back Its Ratification?
Whether a state can rescind a ratification is one of the more unsettled questions in constitutional law. It arose during Reconstruction, when Ohio and New Jersey both ratified the 14th Amendment and then tried to withdraw. Congress counted both as ratifying states and declared the amendment adopted. The Supreme Court later addressed the issue in Coleman v. Miller (1939), holding that the validity of an attempted withdrawal is a political question for Congress to resolve, not something courts will second-guess.8Legal Information Institute. Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification
The practical upshot: Congress gets the final word. The one clear historical precedent, the 14th Amendment, suggests Congress will ignore an attempted rescission. Because the question has arisen so rarely, the law here is thin.
The President Has No Formal Role
The amendment process bypasses the President entirely. A proposed amendment does not go to the White House for a signature or veto, and presidential opposition cannot block ratification. The Supreme Court confirmed this in Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), where Justice Samuel Chase said the President “has nothing to do with the proposition, or adoption, of amendments to the Constitution.” Abraham Lincoln signed the joint resolution proposing the 13th Amendment, but his signature carried no legal weight.9Legal Information Institute. Role of the President in Proposing an Amendment
What Courts Will and Will Not Review
Federal courts consistently refuse to evaluate the wisdom or substance of a proposed amendment. Whether an amendment is a good idea is treated as a political question for Congress and the states. Courts will look at procedural questions, such as whether a proposal cleared the two-thirds margin, whether ratification happened within a valid time frame, and whether ratification documents were properly authenticated. Beyond that narrow procedural window, most disputes have been pushed into Congress’s hands as political questions under Coleman v. Miller.8Legal Information Institute. Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification
The One Thing an Amendment Cannot Do
Article V contains a restriction on its own power. No amendment can deprive any state of its equal representation in the Senate without that state’s consent.2National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution Even if the full amendment process were followed, an amendment giving larger states more senators than smaller ones would be unconstitutional unless every affected state agreed. That equal-suffrage clause has no expiration date and remains the only substantive limit on what an amendment can do.10Legal Information Institute. Unamendable Subjects