3.5 Amendment Process

Article 3

Article 5

Article 7

Article 2

Four

Two

One

Three

A two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress

A national referendum

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court

A majority vote in state legislatures

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court

Ratification by three-fourths of the states

A simple majority in Congress

Approval by the President

A national referendum

A constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures

A two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court

By ratification in state legislatures or state conventions

By a simple majority vote in Congress

Through a unanimous decision by state governors

By holding a national election

To prevent any changes to the Constitution

To make it easy to alter the Constitution

To allow for careful and deliberate changes to the Constitution

To quickly change the Constitution

The ability to ignore the amendment process

The ease of amending it

The difficulty of amending it

The annual review of the Constitution

A simple majority vote

A high threshold for approval

A decision by the President

A unanimous decision by the Supreme Court

Proposal by the Supreme Court, approval by Congress, ratification by a national referendum

Proposal, ratification by the President, approval by Congress

Proposal by Congress, ratification by state conventions, approval by the Supreme Court

Proposal, sent to the states for ratification, ratified by state legislatures or conventions