Bill of Rights
Failed Amendments
His/301
Dr. David Carter
July 22, 2013 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * How and why do amendments become part of the Constitution? * Thomas Jefferson put it best. In a letter to a friend in 1816, he mocked “men who look at constitution with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched”, “who ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what the human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.” “Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not a capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs,” he concluded. “Each generation is an independent as the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before.” * The ratification process really only requires one step, ratification of the ¾ of the states. Congress can write an amendment and pass it with 2/3 approval of congress, but it still needs ¾ ratification of the states, however, states can write their own amendments and have their own constitutional conventions whatever they want, but need 2/3 of the state legislatures to convene one. * The actual working of Article V is “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which k in either Case, shall beveled to all Intents an purposes, as part of this Constitution when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in
His/301
Dr. David Carter
July 22, 2013 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * How and why do amendments become part of the Constitution? * Thomas Jefferson put it best. In a letter to a friend in 1816, he mocked “men who look at constitution with sanctimonious reverence, and deem them like the arc of the covenant, too sacred to be touched”, “who ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what the human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment.” “Let us follow no such examples, nor weakly believe that one generation is not a capable as another of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs,” he concluded. “Each generation is an independent as the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before.” * The ratification process really only requires one step, ratification of the ¾ of the states. Congress can write an amendment and pass it with 2/3 approval of congress, but it still needs ¾ ratification of the states, however, states can write their own amendments and have their own constitutional conventions whatever they want, but need 2/3 of the state legislatures to convene one. * The actual working of Article V is “The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which k in either Case, shall beveled to all Intents an purposes, as part of this Constitution when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in