Article V- Amending the Constitution

Lesson Overview

• Students Will Be Able To:

o Identify the features of Article V (5).

o Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the amendment process established by Article V (5).

• Vocabulary:

o 18th Amendment, 21st Amendment, 27th Amendment, Repeal

Creating the Stable Foundation for the Constitution

• Since 1787 there have been only 27 Amendments added to the original

Constitutional text

o The first 10 were the Bill of Rights and they were added right away in 1791

o Compared to other countries this is a very small number of changes/additions

• The Framers recognized that they needed a way to change the

Constitution if needed however both anti-federalists and federalists
debated how to do this.

• Compromised and said that both the Congress and the States would have
to be involved

• So, the Amendment process is there but it is a hard process so that

makes the Constitution a stable document

o Plus, the Amendments are additions, so the original text is always there

Article V (5)

• Two sentences are used here to specify two ways the Constitution cannot be

changed at all:

o The first prohibits amending the Constitution with regards to importing enslaved people
before 1808

o The second says that there cannot be any changes that would deny equal representation in
the Senate

The Amendment Process

• Amendments can only be proposed if there are
supermajorities

o 2/3 of both houses of Congress or 2/3 of the state
legislatures

• To ratify an amendment, you will need:

o ¾ of the state legislatures

o ¾ of the state constitutional conventions

• Point To Ponder- Why do you think it takes so

much to propose and ratify an amendment?

Repeal of an Amendment

• The 21st Amendment is unique for two reasons:

o It is the only amendment to Repeal- to end or cancel,
a previous law or amendment

o It was only ratified by state conventions and not
Congress

• The 18th Amendment- outlaws the manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors

o This began the era known as Prohibition in 1919

o Social and reform movements to make alcohol illegal

• The 21st Amendment- ratified in 1933, repealed
the 18th Amendment and gave states the
authority to regulate alcohol

The Repeal of Prohibition

The Amendments

• The Bill of Rights (BOR) was the result of a lot of
compromises between the anti-federalists and
federalists and were adopted in 1791

• Reminder- Think of the BOR like a shield,

protecting the people from the government

• The next 5 Amendments (#11 through 15) came

along in the next 79 years (Commonly referred to as the Civil Rights Amendments)

• Amendments #16 through #27 were ratified

between 1913 and 1992 and can be categorized
as:

o Changing the power of state and federal
government

o Changing the structure of the government

o Expanding the suffrage and the power of voters

Failed Amendments

• There have been 6 proposed amendments that have passed Congress but failed to
be ratified (Remember that ratified has nothing to do with rats, but means that they
are passed)

o The original #11 Amendment wanted to set the number of HOR Members (Congress passed
a law on apportionment)

o The original #12 Amendment took 203 years to become ratified and became Amendment

#27- stating that members of Congress cannot grant themselves pay raises in a current
session on Congress

o Tried to pass an amendment in 1810 to prohibit American citizens from having titles of
nobility (Lord, Earl, etc..)

o In 1861 Congress attempted to pass an amendment that would prohibit Congress from
making any laws that interfered with slavery.

o In 1926 they tried to pass the Child Labor Amendment to allow the federal government to
regulate child labor under the age of 18.

o The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed in 1923, passed in 1972 and still not
ratified, to guarantee equal rights under the law for all individuals regardless of their sex.

o The Washington D.C. Voting Rights Amendment expired in 1985 and sought to grant the
district (Washington D.C.) voting rights in Congress

Essential Question- How is the U.S. Constitution
both a static and changing document?

• The U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times since its adoption in 1787.

• Article V establishes the amendment process and lays out two areas of the
Constitution that cannot be amended.

• The states and Congress must work together to amend the Constitution, which
requires supermajorities in both the proposal and ratification steps.

• Amendments to the Constitution either change the powers of the federal or state
government, the structure of the federal government, or expand the voting rights
of the people.

What's Next- In the upcoming lesson, you will learn how the amendments of the
Constitution preserve the civil liberties and civil rights of the people.