How Constitutional Amendments Work
The Constitution was designed to endure — but not remain frozen in time. Article V created a process for changing the Constitution when the nation reaches broad agreement that change is necessary.
The Constitution can be changed — but only through a process designed to require broad national agreement.
Many Americans assume the Constitution is permanently fixed. It is not.
The framers understood that future generations would face challenges, injustices, and realities they could not fully predict. To address that, they included a formal amendment process in Article V of the Constitution.
But they also made the process intentionally difficult.
Changing the Constitution requires overwhelming national agreement — not just a temporary political majority. The goal was to balance stability with the ability to adapt over time.
The Amendment Process
There are two stages:
- Proposal
- Ratification
Step 1 — Proposing an Amendment
An amendment can be proposed in one of two ways:
Congressional Proposal
Two-thirds of both the House and Senate vote to propose an amendment.
This is how every successful amendment in American history has been proposed.
Constitutional Convention
Two-thirds of state legislatures can request a constitutional convention to propose amendments.
This method has never been used.
Step 2 — Ratification
Once proposed, an amendment must then be approved by three-fourths of the states.
Today, that means approval from 38 states.
Ratification usually happens through state legislatures, although conventions in the states can also be used.
Why Is It So Difficult?
The amendment process was designed to prevent sudden emotional swings or temporary political movements from rewriting the nation’s foundational law.
Requiring supermajorities forces amendments to gain support across regions, parties, and political viewpoints.
As a result, thousands of proposed amendments have failed, while only 27 have ever been ratified.
Amendments That Changed America
Bill of Rights (1791)
The first ten amendments protected freedoms including speech, religion, press, assembly, due process, and protections against unreasonable searches.
13th Amendment (1865)
Abolished slavery in the United States following the Civil War.
14th Amendment (1868)
Guaranteed citizenship, due process, and equal protection under the law.
15th Amendment (1870)
Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race.
19th Amendment (1920)
Recognized women’s right to vote nationwide.
22nd Amendment (1951)
Limited presidents to two elected terms after Franklin Roosevelt served four terms.
26th Amendment (1971)
Lowered the voting age from 21 to 18 during the Vietnam War era.
27th Amendment (1992)
Prevented congressional pay raises from taking effect until after the next election.
Remarkably, it was originally proposed in 1789 and ratified more than 200 years later.
Major Amendments That Failed
Equal Rights Amendment
Intended to guarantee equal legal rights regardless of sex. It passed Congress but failed to secure enough state ratifications before deadlines expired.
Child Labor Amendment
Proposed in 1924 to give Congress stronger authority to regulate child labor nationwide. It never gained enough state support.
D.C. Voting Rights Amendment
Would have expanded congressional representation for Washington, D.C. It failed to receive enough ratifications.
Could New Amendments Still Happen Today?
Yes — but the political barriers are extremely high.
Modern proposals involving campaign finance reform, term limits, balanced budget requirements, voting rights protections, and Supreme Court reform regularly face the challenge of building support across 38 states.
That difficulty is both a protection and a limitation.
It prevents rapid constitutional upheaval, but it can also make it difficult to address long-term structural problems even when public support exists.
Constitutional Amendment Reform
Article V protects the Constitution from sudden political swings, but it also makes structural reform extremely difficult.
A deeper dive explores whether the amendment process itself should be changed, what reforms people propose, and why any change would be so hard to achieve.
Read the deeper dive →The Constitution was written to endure, but also to evolve.