Why there are 27 amendments to the United States Constitution | Opinion
Editor's note: This is a regular feature on issues related to the Constitution and civics written by Paul G. Summers, retired judge and state attorney general.
We finished our study of Article IV of the U. S. Constitution. We shall now delve into Article V of the Constitution’s seven Articles.
Article V deals with the amendment process.
Article V. Article V lists two ways to amend the Constitution. The first is through the Congress. With two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate, the Congress can propose an amendment. The second way to propose an amendment is by two-thirds “…of the several States,” which “…call a Convention for proposing Amendments….”
The first process is by far the more popular. All of the amendments to our Constitution have resulted from the Congressional process rather than from an “Article V Convention.”
The advantage of the Congressional amendatory process is that the subject matter is limited to a specific right or topic, such as the first ten Amendments, or Bill of Rights.
A good example is the First Amendment – freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and to petition the Government.
Under the Convention process, a convention could conceivably open up the Constitution to a number of changes, including the entire document.
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How long does it to take to amend the Constitution? It depends.
But the amendment proposal part is only half of the process. Three quarters of the states’ legislatures, or conventions in three quarters of the states, must then ratify a proposed amendment.
When the States have ratified the proposed amendment, then it becomes part of the Constitution. “…One or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by Congress…” to the states.
How long does it take to ratify a proposed amendment? That’s a hard question to answer. The Bill of Rights, or first ten Amendments, took about two years.
The last amendment, the 27th, concerns the timing and compensation of senators and representatives. Part of the original Bill of Rights, it was not ratified until 202 years, seven months later by a vote of Michigan in May 1992.
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Could a 28th Amendment affect the size of the Supreme Court?
There is a strong movement in Congress to propose the 28th Amendment.
Over 200 members of Congress have either endorsed or sponsored such a resolution.
This would be the shortest amendment in our Constitution, thirteen words: “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.”
That is the language of the proposed “Keep Nine” Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. If proposed and ratified, it would set the number permanently at nine justices.
The Constitution is silent on the size of the Supreme Court. Without an amendment, a president and Congress could change the number for political advantage.
Currently it just takes a bill passed by Congress and signed by the President to change the number of justices. Our Court has had nine justices since 1869, or 154 years.
As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg opined when asked about the number of nine justices on the Court: “Nine seems to be a good number, and it’s been that way for a long time.”
We shall see.
Reading the Constitution is time well spent. Article VI is our next topic.
Paul G. Summers, a lawyer, is a former appellate and senior judge; district attorney general; and the Attorney General of Tennessee. He resides in Holladay and Nashville.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Why there are 27 amendments to the United States Constitution
