
Article V tells how to Amend the Constitution. This is the ONLY way that the Constitution can be changed. The Constitution cannot be eliminated by anyone. It is there (remember the Preamble) to all posterity. However, it can be amended- not easily.
Explanation is bolded and in italics after the transcript. The transcript is from National Archives archives.gov.
Article. V.
“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, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and 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 any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.”
Article V sets forth procedures for amending the Constitution.1 Most of the Article’s text addresses the proposal and ratification of amendments.2
Since the Founding, Congress has used Article V’s procedures to propose 33 constitutional amendments.4 The states have ratified 27 of these proposed amendments, which include the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights,5 thereby making them part of the Constitution.
Article V establishes two methods for proposing amendments to the Constitution.6 The first method requires both the House and Senate to propose a constitutional amendment by a vote of two-thirds of the Members present.7 This is the only method for proposing amendments that has been used thus far. Alternatively, Article V provides that Congress “shall” call a convention for proposing amendments upon the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures.8 This method of proposing amendments, which scholars have debated at length, has never been used.9
Article V also sets forth two methods for states to ratify amendments to the Constitution.10 Congress determines which method the states must follow in order for proposed amendments to become effective.11 The first method of ratification requires three-fourths of the state legislatures to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.12 Alternatively, Congress may require that three-fourths of state ratifying conventions approve a proposed amendment.13 Congress has specified this second mode of amendment only once, for the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment establishing Prohibition.14
Leave a Reply