Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, an amendment becomes law in two steps: it must first be proposed, then ratified. Congress proposes an amendment by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, or a convention called at the request of two-thirds of state legislatures can propose one. Whichever path produces the proposal, three-fourths of the states — 38 out of 50 today — must ratify before the amendment takes effect. That is how the amendment process works under Article V, and it has produced 27 amendments since 1789.
Step One: Proposing an Amendment
Every amendment in U.S. history has been proposed the same way. A joint resolution is introduced in the House or Senate, and it passes when two-thirds of the members present in each chamber vote yes, assuming a quorum. The threshold is two-thirds of those voting, not two-thirds of total membership — the Supreme Court confirmed that reading in the National Prohibition Cases (1920).1Justia. National Prohibition Cases Absences can shift the math meaningfully.
Article V also provides a second route that has never been used. Congress is required to call a convention for proposing amendments whenever two-thirds of the state legislatures apply for one.2Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Article V The text says “shall call,” so Congress has no discretion once the threshold is met. Because no convention has ever been triggered, basic procedural questions — how delegates are chosen, how many each state sends, whether the agenda can be limited to a single topic — have no established answers. As of early 2026, roughly 20 states have active applications for a convention aimed at limiting federal authority, well short of the 34 required.
Step Two: Ratifying an Amendment
A proposal is not yet an amendment. Article V gives Congress the sole power to choose between two ratification methods when it sends a proposal to the states.3Constitution Annotated. Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
The standard method, used for 26 of the 27 amendments, sends the proposal to state legislatures. Three-fourths must vote to ratify.2Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Article V A governor’s signature is not required. The Supreme Court held in Dillon v. Gloss (1921) that the date the legislature votes is the controlling date, whether or not the governor ever signs.4Constitution Annotated. Ratification of Amendments to the Constitution Generally
The alternative is ratification by special state conventions elected to consider the proposal. Congress used this route exactly once, for the Twenty-first Amendment repealing Prohibition in 1933. Thirty-six state conventions ratified it in under a year.5Congress.gov. Amdt21.S1.2.5 Ratification of the Twenty-First Amendment The reasoning at the time was that specially elected conventions would reflect popular opinion more directly than sitting legislators.6Constitution Annotated. ArtV.4.3 Ratification by Conventions
The President Has No Role
A common misconception is that the President must sign a proposed amendment. He does not. The Supreme Court settled this in Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), where Justice Chase wrote that the veto power “applies only to the ordinary cases of legislation” and that the President “has nothing to do with the proposition, or adoption, of amendments to the Constitution.”7Legal Information Institute. Hollingsworth v Virginia A President can campaign publicly for or against a proposal, but that advocacy has no legal effect on whether the amendment moves forward.
How Long States Have to Ratify
Article V says nothing about a deadline. Starting with the Eighteenth Amendment in 1917, Congress began writing seven-year ratification limits into the text of proposed amendments or their accompanying resolutions. But not every proposal carries one, and the consequences of silence can be dramatic.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment, which bars Congress from giving itself a mid-term pay raise, was proposed in 1789 with the first batch of amendments sent to the states. It sat mostly dormant for two centuries until a University of Texas student revived interest in the 1980s. Michigan became the 38th state to ratify on May 7, 1992 — more than 202 years after the original proposal.8Office of the Historian. The Twenty-seventh Amendment The Supreme Court in Dillon v. Gloss had suggested ratification must occur within a “reasonable time,” but Coleman v. Miller (1939) appeared to walk that back, treating timeliness as a political question for Congress rather than a judicial one.9Constitution Annotated. Amdt27.4 Implications for the Article V Amendment Process
The Equal Rights Amendment shows the reverse. Congress proposed it in 1972 with a seven-year deadline, then extended it to 1982. It fell three states short. Three additional states ratified decades later, with Virginia becoming the 38th in 2020. Whether those late ratifications count remains contested. The Office of Legal Counsel concluded in 2020 that the deadline had expired, while supporters argue Congress can remove or disregard the deadline. Federal courts have declined so far to order the Archivist to certify it.10Congress.gov. The Equal Rights Amendment: Background and Recent Legal Developments
Can a State Take Back a Ratification?
This is one of the oldest unresolved questions in constitutional law. The issue first arose during Reconstruction, when Ohio and New Jersey attempted to withdraw their ratifications of the Fourteenth Amendment. Congress ignored both rescissions and counted the states toward the required three-fourths anyway.11Legal Information Institute. Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification
The Supreme Court touched the question in Coleman v. Miller, calling it a political question for Congress rather than one for the courts.12Justia. Coleman v. Miller More recently, the Office of Legal Counsel has questioned whether Congress even has a role in certifying amendments, arguing that ratification by three-fourths of the states takes effect automatically. In practice, no rescission has been treated as valid, but no court has definitively ruled one impossible.
How an Amendment Becomes Official
After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist of the United States notifies each state governor. As states ratify, they send certified copies of their ratification documents to the National Archives, where the Office of the Federal Register reviews them for legal sufficiency.13National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process
Once documents from the required 38 states are on file, the Office of the Federal Register drafts a formal proclamation for the Archivist to sign. That certification is published in the Federal Register and the U.S. Statutes at Large, serving as official notice that the amendment is part of the Constitution.13National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process The Archivist’s role is ministerial. The office confirms that documents are facially valid and properly signed, but makes no judgment about whether a state’s internal ratification process was proper.
What Article V Doesn’t Let You Change
Article V places one permanent limit on the amendment power: no state can be deprived of its equal vote in the Senate without that state’s consent.2Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Article V Every state has two senators regardless of population, and that guarantee is the one piece of the Constitution that cannot be altered through the ordinary amendment process.14Constitution Annotated. Equal Representation of States in the Senate Reducing any state’s Senate representation would require that state’s individual agreement on top of the three-fourths supermajority.
A second restriction was temporary. Before 1808, no amendment could touch two specific provisions in Article I, Section 9 tied to the slave trade and the apportionment of certain direct taxes. That restriction expired by its own terms and has no effect on amendments today.3Constitution Annotated. Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution