Chapter 3 The Constitution Section 2 Formal Amendments

Objectives: * Analyze the processes by which the United States Constitution can be changed and evaluate their effectiveness * Understand the history of the 27 amendments to the Constitution

Formal Amendments *When the Constitution went into effect, America was a small agricultural nation of fewer than 1,300 families, along east coast * Today, more than 300 million people live in the 50 States of the USA * The US is the most powerful nation in the world * The Constitution has endured for a long time

Formal Amendment * There are two ways to change the Constitution 1) by formal amendment 2) by informal procedures

Formal Amendments Changing the Constitution * The Framers knew that the wisest of constitution makers cannot build for all time * The Constitution provides for its own amendment, written changes to this document

Formal Amendments * Article V sets out two methods for the proposal and two methods for the ratification of the constitutional amendments * Formal Amendment – changes or additions that become part of the written language of the Constitution itself * There are four methods involved

Formal Amendments First Method > An amendment may be proposed by 2/3’s vote in each house of Congress and ratified by ¾’s of the State Legislatures > 38 State Legislatures must approve the change > 26 amendments had been approved this way

Formal Amendments Second Method > An Amendment proposed by Congress and then ratified by conventions, called for that purpose, ¾’s of the States approve it > Only the 21st Amendment was passed this way >Repeal of Prohibition

Formal Amendments Third Method * An amendment may be proposed by a national convention, called by Congress at the request of 2/3s of the States (34 States as of today) * It must be ratified by ¾’s of the State Legislatures * No Amendment has been passed this way

Formal Amendments Fourth Method * An amendment may be proposed by a national convention and ratified by ¾’s of the States * No Amendment has been passed this way

Formal Amendments Federalism and Popular Sovereignty * Proposals for amendments take place at the national level and ratified at the state level * There is much criticism about the people selected to ratify the amendment for various reasons * Supreme Court has ruled that a State cannot require an amendment proposed by Congress to be approved by a vote of the people of the State before it is cane be ratified by the State

Formal Amendments * Court Case that solved this dilemma was Hawke v. Smith in 1920 Proposed Amendments * The Constitution places one restriction on the subjects with which a proposed amendment may deal * Article V declares “No State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate

Formal Amendments *If both houses of Congress pass a resolution, it does not go to the President to be signed or vetoed. * It is then sent to the States for ratification * More than 10,000 joint resolutions have been proposed in Congress since 1789 * Only 33 of those have been sent to the States

Formal Amendments * Of those 33 resolutions, 27 have been ratified as Amendments to the Constitution * Congress has the power to place “reasonable time limits” on the ratification of a resolution * The first ten amendments are also called the “Bill of Rights”

Formal Amendments * They were proposed right after the Constitution was adopted * The Bill of Rights are constitutional guarantees of freedom of belief and expression, freedom and security of the person, and fair and equal treatment before the law

Formal Amendments The 27 Amendments 1-10) Bill of Rights 11- Immunity of States from certain lawsuits 12 – Changes in electoral college procedures 13 – Abolition of Slavery 14 – Citizenship, due process, equal protection 15 – No denial of vote because of race, color, or previous enslavement

Formal Amendments The 27 Amendments 16 – Power of Congress to tax incomes 17 – Popular election of US Senators 18 – Prohibition of alcohol 19 – Woman’s suffrage 20 – Change of dates for start of Presidential and Congressional terms 21 – Repeal of Prohibition (18 th )

Formal Amendments The 27 Amendments 22 – Limit on Presidential terms 23 – District of Columbia vote in presidential elections 24 – Ban on tax payment as voter qualification 25 – Presidential succession, vice-presidential vacancy, & presidential disability

Formal Amendments The 27 Amendments 26 – Voting Age of – Congressional pay

Formal Amendments 12 th – came about when electoral college did not produce a presidential winner in th – came about in 1865 – abolished Slavery and was a direct result of the Civil War 14 th and 15 th are also direct results of the Civil War 18 th – only to be repealed 22 nd – proposed after the Republican Party gained control of Congress for first time in 16 years after FDR 26 th – added in 1971, lowered voting age from 21 to 18 for all elections in the United States

Formal Amendments 27 th Amendment is the most recent * it was the first one offered by Congress * this amendment forbids members of Congress from raising their own pay during that term. It was proposed in 1789 and it took nearly 203 years to ratify if in 1992