One of the principles underlying our system of government is that laws and policies must be refined over time to accommodate new circumstances and events that were not foreseen by lawmakers when they first passed their original legislation. This can be done by introducing new legislation or amendments to existing law that modify the legal text and make changes to its application. This process is known as constitutional amendment. The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times since its initial draft in 1787, including the first 10 amendments adopted four years later as the Bill of Rights. Amendments can be proposed and ratified at the local, state, or federal level.
To amend the Constitution of the United States:
The framers of the US Constitution wrote their document with the understanding that it would be a living document and might need to be amended from time to time to reflect changing circumstances and to correct flaws in its operation. To ensure that the Constitution could be altered, they established a method for proposing and ratifying amendments in Article Five of the US Constitution. In this Essay we examine the history of this process, relevant Supreme Court decisions and historical practices, academic debates, and other factors related to the methods that Article V establishes for proposing and ratifying constitutional amendments. The Essay also explores some of the major constitutional issues that have arisen over the years and the ways in which these have been addressed through constitutional amendment.