There is no 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution currently contains 27 ratified amendments, and the most recent one, the 27th, was added in 1992 after a ratification process that began in 1789.1Congress.gov. Twenty-Seventh Amendment Since the Constitution was drafted, more than 11,000 amendments have been proposed in Congress, and only 27 have cleared the bar that Article V sets.2National Archives. Amending America Several proposals are commonly discussed as candidates to become the 28th, and one, the Equal Rights Amendment, is the subject of active litigation over whether it has already been ratified.
Why the Count Is Stuck at 27
Article V makes amendments hard on purpose. A proposal has to pass both the House and the Senate by a two-thirds supermajority, and then three-fourths of the states, currently 38 out of 50, have to ratify it. The president has no role. A signature isn’t required, and a veto can’t block anything.
There is a second path that has never actually been used. If 34 state legislatures apply to Congress for a convention on the same subject, Congress must call one. As of 2026, the Convention of States project reports that 20 state legislatures have passed applications calling for a convention focused on limiting federal power, fiscal restraints, and term limits. That is well short of the threshold, and there is no settled legal standard for how closely different states’ applications must match in subject matter.
Once an amendment is proposed, Congress picks the ratification method: state legislatures or specially called state conventions. Every amendment except one has gone through state legislatures. The exception is the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition in 1933. A governor cannot veto a ratification vote, because ratification is treated as a federal function delegated to the states, not ordinary state lawmaking.3National Conference of State Legislatures. Amending the U.S. Constitution
Out of more than 11,000 proposals since 1787, 27 have made it through. That success rate is under a quarter of one percent.2National Archives. Amending America The two-thirds vote in Congress is hard. Getting 38 state legislatures to line up on the same text is harder.
The Equal Rights Amendment: The Closest Candidate
The Equal Rights Amendment is the most prominent contender for the 28th Amendment, and its status is genuinely disputed. The ERA would guarantee that equality of rights cannot be denied on account of sex. Congress proposed it in 1972 with a seven-year ratification deadline in the proposing clause. When the deadline arrived in 1979, 35 of the needed 38 states had ratified. Congress extended the deadline to June 30, 1982, but no additional states ratified before that date.
Then the issue came back decades later. Nevada ratified in 2017, Illinois in 2018, and Virginia in 2020, purporting to make Virginia the 38th state. Supporters argue the ERA is now part of the Constitution because 38 states have ratified and the deadline sat in the proposing clause, not in the amendment’s text. Opponents point out that the deadline expired long ago, and five states have since voted to rescind their earlier ratifications.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an opinion in January 2020 concluding that “Congress had the constitutional authority to impose a deadline on the ratification of the ERA and, because that deadline has expired, the ERA Resolution is no longer pending before the States.”4Congress.gov. The Equal Rights Amendment: Background and Recent Legal Developments Federal courts have so far agreed. In Virginia v. Ferriero (2021), a district court held that the Archivist has no duty to publish and certify the ERA because the ratifications came after the original and extended deadlines. The D.C. Circuit affirmed the dismissal. As of 2026, the Archivist has not published the ERA, and multiple lawsuits challenging that decision remain in the courts.
Other Proposals Frequently Discussed as a 28th Amendment
Several other proposals draw serious political energy every few years. None has come close to a two-thirds vote in Congress, but each surfaces reliably enough that it gets treated as a candidate.
Congressional Term Limits
Term limit proposals would cap how long members of Congress can serve. Typical versions suggest two six-year terms for senators and three two-year terms for representatives. Today, members can serve as long as voters keep electing them. Polling shows broad public support, but the structural problem is obvious: the people who would need to vote the amendment out of Congress are the same people whose careers it would end. Term limits are one of the three core objectives of the Convention of States effort.
Campaign Finance Reform
Several proposals aim to overturn the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, which held that the government cannot restrict independent political spending by corporations and unions. In the 119th Congress, H.J.Res.54 proposes an amendment declaring that constitutional rights belong only to natural persons and that spending money to influence elections is not protected speech under the First Amendment.5Congress.gov. H.J.Res.54 – 119th Congress (2025-2026) Twenty-four state legislatures have passed resolutions urging Congress to propose a campaign finance amendment.
Balanced Budget
The Balanced Budget Amendment would require the federal government to spend no more than it collects in a given year. Most versions include an exception for wartime or declared national emergencies. The proposal came closest to passage in 1995, when it cleared the House but fell one vote short in the Senate. Opponents argue that a rigid constitutional mandate would prevent deficit spending during recessions, when deficits are a standard economic tool.
Electoral College Reform
Proposals to abolish the Electoral College and replace it with a direct national popular vote for president reappear in nearly every Congress. In the 118th Congress, H.J.Res.227 proposed exactly that, though it saw no committee action.6Congress.gov. H.J.Res.227 – 118th Congress (2023-2024) Smaller states benefit from the current structure, and 13 states can block any amendment, which makes 38-state ratification a steep climb for any change that dilutes state-by-state influence.
Deadlines and Rescissions: The Two Live Wildcards
Two unresolved questions could still decide whether an amendment gets counted, and the ERA has put both back on the table.
On deadlines, Article V says nothing about how long states have to ratify. The 18th Amendment, proposed in 1917, was the first to include a seven-year deadline, and Congress has attached deadlines routinely since the 20th Amendment. In Dillon v. Gloss (1921), the Supreme Court held that Congress can set a reasonable time limit. In Coleman v. Miller (1939), the Court held that Congress has “the final determination of the question whether, by lapse of time, its proposal of the amendment had lost its vitality.”7Justia Law. Coleman v Miller, 307 US 433 (1939) Whether Congress can extend or remove a deadline placed in a proposing clause after the fact has no definitive Supreme Court ruling.
On rescission, states have tried to take back ratifications before. During ratification of the 14th Amendment, both New Jersey and Ohio voted to rescind. Congress counted those states anyway and declared the amendment ratified. The Supreme Court has suggested that whether a state can rescind is a political question for Congress, not a matter for the courts.8Congress.gov. Effect of Prior Rejection of an Amendment or Rescission of Ratification Rescission has never been recognized as valid in any completed ratification, but no court has definitively closed the door. That leaves the question open for whichever amendment fight comes next.
Until one of these proposals clears both hurdles, or a court accepts that the ERA already has, the Constitution has 27 amendments and no 28th.9United States Senate. Constitution of the United States