Encyclopedia > Convention to propose amendment to U.S. Constitution
Besides the more common method, there is an option to assemble a national convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution. Article V of the Constitution requires the Congress to "call a convention" to propose one or more constitutional amendments whenever two-thirds of the state legislatures "apply" for such a convention. With 50 states presently in the Union, there must be applications made by lawmakers in at least 34 states in order to trigger this alternative procedure. The convention to propose an amendment (or amendments) has no ratification powers—it may only draft and propose the amendment(s), which then must be ratified either by the state legislatures or by smaller conventions conducted within the individual states. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...
Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. ...
Congress in Joint Session. ...
State legislatures are the lawmaking bodies of the 50 states in the United States of America. ...
Article V of the United States Constitution establishes the possibility of conventions within the staes to ratify an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ...
Purpose
The framers of the Constitution wanted a means of sometimes bypassing a potentially recalcitrant Congress in the amendment-proposing process. They knew that there would be circumstances in which Congress, for self-serving reasons, would ignore valid pleas to amend the Constitution and so the framers established an alternate means of proposing change in the Constitution.
History All of the twenty-seven amendments of the Constitution were proposed by Congress—never have the legislatures of enough states applied to Congress to call a national convention to propose an amendment on the same subject. While there have been applications addressed to Congress from the nation's beginning to the 1990s—and from legislators in all but one of the 50 states—Congress has never responded by calling a convention because those applications requested amendments on different subjects. This Congressional inaction has contributed to setting the precedent that the applications from two-thirds of the state legislatures must petition for the same amendment(s) although the federal courts have never ruled favorably on this "precedent" by Congress. Indeed the Supreme Court has ruled on four separate cases that Congress "must call" if the states apply. This page lists all ratified and unratified amendments to the United States Constitution, as well as some proposals for amendments. ...
The 1990s decade refers to the years from 1990 to 1999, inclusive. ...
However, in three instances, state lawmakers have come very close to triggering a national convention:
- Only one more state was needed to call a convention for an amendment to mandate direct election of U.S. Senators. But the subsequent adoption of the 17th Amendment made it moot.
- During the 1960s, when state legislators were concerned about the United States Supreme Court's state legislative reapportionment decisions in Reynolds v. Sims and Wesberry v. Sanders, had there been applications from the legislatures of just two more states, this alternate procedure for proposing a federal constitutional amendment would have been triggered.
- Likewise, during the 1970s and 1980s, only two additional applications were lacking to invoke the process of a national convention to draft and propose a federal constitutional amendment requiring the budget of the United States government to be balanced, except during time of war.
The Congressional Record shows that the state of Hawaii made application for an Article V convention, the only state to have made only one application. South Dakota has a record at made 27 applications. Thus according to the Congressional Record all 50 states have applied for a convention. According to the Congressional Record all but two of the applications were made during the 20th Century and well in excess of 80 percent of them were made in the latter half of the century. Seal of the Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the Congress of the United States, the other being the House of Representatives. ...
Amendment XVII (the Seventeenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution ratified on April 8, 1913 and first in effect for the election of 1914, amends Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the direct election of Senators by the people of a state rather than their election...
The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...
The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...
Reynolds v. ...
Wesberry v. ...
The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ...
The 1980s decade refers to the years from 1980 to 1989, inclusive. ...
Wikisource has original text related to this article: Balanced Budget Amendment The Balanced Budget Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution which would require a balance in the projected revenues and expenditures of the United States government. ...
Possible scope
Constitutional scholars are deeply divided as to how a national, amendment-proposing convention would function procedurally and whether such a convention would be limited to the one subject for which it was summoned or whether it could stray far afield and expose the Constitution either to capricious, possibly dangerous, revision or whether the convention would have the power to simply discard the Constitution altogether and replace it with an entirely new document. It is worth noting that such an outcome would be similar to what happened when the convention assembled in 1787 ended up writing the current Constitution. That convention was gathered merely to revise the earlier Articles of Confederation, but chose instead to abandon the articles in favor of a completely new document. The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, formed the first governing document of the United States of America. ...
According to the Congressional Record the Constitutional Convention of 1787 was authorized to rewrite and revise the Articles of Confederation and to create a Constitution by order of Congress on February 21, 1787. (See Kaplan, Constitutional Brinkmanship, p.26). Convention does not have the power to create a new Constitution, but to offer amendments. Like Congress, under the terms of Article V, it can offer amendments to "this Constitution." February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
Under the Constitution's necessary and proper clause, Congress could enact a statute to clearly define many of the currently ambiguous and debatable features of this procedure. Up through the 102nd Congress, it was quite routine for Senators and Representatives to offer legislation in both houses of Congress to end much of the disagreement surrounding the convention amendment-proposing alternative. However, in recent terms of Congress, those very same lawmakers, for example Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, have not re-introduced such legislation. The necessary and proper clause (also known as the elastic clause) refers to Section 8 of Article One of the United States Constitution: To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the...
The 102nd United States Congress met from January 3, 1991 to January 4, 1993. ...
Orrin Grant Hatch (born March 22, 1934 in Pittsburgh) is a five-term Republican United States Senator, from Utah. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Salt Lake City Largest city Salt Lake City Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 13th 219,887 km² 435 km 565 km 3. ...
In 1920 the Supreme Court made it clear that Congress did not have the power to regulate a convention and determines that "neither state legislatures nor federal courts may alter what the Constitution has fixed." By this it was clear the court meant that unless Congress was authorized by the Constitution to alter the amendatory process, which it is not, and as there is nothing in Article I under the listed powers to which the necessary and proper clause refers, Congress cannot regulate a convention anymore than a convention could vote to regulate Congress and have the constitutional authority to do so. The necessary and proper clause clear refers to the "foregoing" (listed) powes and therefore does not include Article V which follows in the Constitution after Article I and therefore is not "foregoing."
In any case, by including a clause for the people to hold a national convention, the framers of the U.S. Constitution provided a peaceful alternative to a violent revolt in times of severe public outrage at the U.S. Government in its current form.
Recission of applications The legislatures of some states have chosen to rescind their prior applications for an amendment-proposing, national convention, either out of fear of the possible results of such a convention or because the reasons for the summoning such a convention were later rendered moot. Recent examples of recissions are: There is nothing in the Constitution which either permits or recognizes such recessions of applications particularly where the applications, deliberately ignored by Congress, would cause a convention to be called. Such a veto power by the states would allow the states or even one state to be able to veto the actions of the other states as well as Congress. The same 1920 Supreme Court ruling applies in this case; neither state nor national legislatures may alter what the Constitution has fixed. Official language(s) English Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 30th 135,775 km² 306 km 531 km 3. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 22nd 170 451 km² 260 km 800 km 17. ...
Official language(s) English and French Capital Baton Rouge Largest city New Orleans at last census; probably Baton Rouge since Hurricane Katrina Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 31st 134,382 km² 210 km 610 km 16 29°N to 33°N 89°W to 94°W Population...
Official language(s) None Capital Boise Largest city Boise Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 14th 216,632 km² 491 km 771 km 0. ...
Official language(s) None Capital Salem Largest city Portland Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 9th 255,026 km² 420 km 580 km 2. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Bismarck Largest city Fargo Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 19th 183 272 km² 340 km 545 km 2. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Salt Lake City Largest city Salt Lake City Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 13th 219,887 km² 435 km 565 km 3. ...
Official language(s) None Capital Phoenix Largest city Phoenix Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 6th 295,254 km² 500 km 645 km 0. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Richmond Largest city Virginia Beach Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 35th 110,862 km² 320 km 690 km 7. ...
Further, as Congress has never acknowledged any of these recessions, it would have to do so before they would have effect. To do this however would mean Congress would be forced first to recognize the application itself. Therefore Congress would be forced to recognize the 567 applications made by the 50 states applying for a convention. Such recognition of course would trigger a convention the calling of which was decribed in Federalist 85 by Alexander Hamilton, author of Article V as "peremptory" a legal term meaning absolute, having no option etc. This fact explains why Congress has not recognized any of the so-called recessions.
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