Once proposed, an amendment must be ratified by three-quarters of the states, either through their legislatures or through conventions convened within each state. Article five of the United States Constitution outlines the procedure for amending the Constitution. According to Article Five, the process for amending the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and their subsequent ratification. Below is an overview of the constitutional amendment processes in all 50 states. I analyze the various possible ways to amend state constitutions, including amendments drafted by legislatures, citizens, conventions, and commissions.
I also note the variety of ways in which states structure these amendment processes. All states, except Delaware, require that amendments drafted by the legislature be approved by voters. Amendments in Delaware take effect once they are approved by two-thirds of the legislative votes in consecutive sessions. Most states allow voters to ratify amendments drafted by the legislature by a simple majority of votes.
However, three states set a supermajority threshold: two-thirds of votes in New Hampshire, three-fifths for most amendments in Florida, and a threshold of 55 percent for most amendments in Colorado. Four states (Hawaii, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Wyoming) require that amendments be approved by a majority of voters in every election; in these states, voters who abstain from voting on an amendment basically count as void. Illinois combines these approaches to voter ratification, allowing amendments to be approved if they have the support of three-fifths of the voters who vote for the amendment or a majority of the voters who participate in the whole choice. In all but one state, where the constitutional initiative process is currently available, legislators cannot play the role of gatekeepers preventing an amendment initiated by citizens from appearing on the ballot.
Once supporters meet the signature requirements and other legal requirements, the amendment is placed on the ballot, without the legislature participating in this process. However, in Massachusetts, amendments submitted by citizens must have the support of a quarter of the members of the legislature, meeting in joint session and voting in two consecutive sessions, before they can appear on the ballot. Once amendments submitted by citizens are eligible to be presented on the ballot, they usually have to be ratified in the same way as amendments proposed by the legislature, by a simple majority of voters in most states, and by a supermajority of voters in several states. However, in Nevada, amendments initiated by citizens face an additional obstacle: they must be approved by a majority of voters in two consecutive elections.
On average, amendments initiated by citizens represent less than 2 out of every 10 amendments passed across the country each year. However, in several states, such as California and Colorado, amendments initiated by citizens are considered at a particularly rapid pace. Article V states that an amendment must be proposed by Congress with a two-thirds majority of the votes in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or through a constitutional convention convened by two-thirds of state legislatures. A proposed amendment only becomes part of the Constitution when it is ratified by legislatures or conventions in three-quarters of the states (38 of the 50 states).
Article five says nothing about the deadlines for ratification of proposed amendments, but most of the proposed amendments since 1917 include a deadline for ratification. That difficulty became evident recently, when supporters of setting limits on congressional terms and of a balanced budget amendment failed to obtain the new amendments they wanted. The authority to amend the Constitution of the United States derives from Article V of the Constitution. In some cases, States have sent official documents to NARA to record the rejection of an amendment or the cancellation of a previous ratification. Six amendments approved by Congress and sent to the states have not been ratified by the required number of states and are not part of the Constitution.
Some require that the amendments have the support of a majority of legislators, while others require the legislative support of an absolute majority. Senators; (allowing states to include factors other than population equality when drawing the boundaries of state legislative districts); and (propose an amendment requiring the U.The Florida constitution authorizes two different commissions to include amendments on the ballot for approval by voters. They knew that, in order for it to face the challenges or crises of the future, the document would need amendments. When the 1st Congress considered a series of constitutional amendments, it was suggested that the two houses first adopt a resolution stating that they considered the amendments necessary.
They also held that the procedural guarantees and equal protection clauses of the Nebraska Constitution are coextensive with their federal equivalents, so the federal rationale review applies to substantive challenges to economic regulations with due process guarantees, and not to the strictest standard that the court had applied in a series of cases at the beginning of the century. XX. In addition to defining the procedures for amending the Constitution, Article Five also protects three clauses of the first article of the ordinary amendment by attaching stipulations.
