[ProtectOurFreedom]

There are time limits to get amendments passed.

The 27th Amendment took 202 years, 7 months, 12 days.

What's the time limit? 300 years?

[Secret Agent Man]

It did not take 202 years.

The 27th amendment was not introduced 202 years ago.

Amendments only have a certain amount of time after introduction to be passed. They are specified within the proposed amendments themselves, and for the last 75 years they have been set at 7 years. this is so the states have enough time to get the amendments through their individual states processes to ratify them, and also so that amendments do not sit lingering for decades or hundreds of years and become irrelevant or outdated. As we do not pass the same types of laws about things we did 150 years ago.

[Publius]

Article V ping.

I found some mistakes in this article.

First off, the meeting in Arizona is not a Convention of the States. It's just a meeting to work on possible rules for a future Convention of the States. To actually be a Convention of the States, Congress must call it when the number of applications from the states reaches 34. We're not there yet.

The second mistake is the statement that 27 states have applied for a Convention of the States to address a balanced budget amendment. The actual count is 29.

The third mistake is a general misunderstanding of what a Convention of the States does and what powers it possesses. There appears to be a misunderstanding of the various pieces of Article V. For that reason, I'm going to insert my usual Article V boilerplate next.

***

The amendatory process under Article V consists of three steps: Proposal, Disposal, and Ratification.

Proposal:

There are two ways to propose an amendment to the Constitution.

• The Congressional Method requires the House and Senate to pass an amendment by a two thirds majority.
• The Amendments Convention Method requires the legislatures of two thirds of the states to apply to Congress to call a Convention for Proposing Amendments. Once the two thirds threshold is reached, Congress is required to set a time and place for the convention.

Article V gives Congress and an Amendments Convention exactly the same power to propose amendments, no more and no less.

Disposal:

Once Congress, or an Amendments Convention, proposes amendments, Congress must decide whether the states will ratify by the:

• State Legislature Method, or the
• State Ratifying Convention Method.

The State Ratifying Convention Method has only been used twice: once to ratify the Constitution, and once to ratify the 21st Amendment repealing Prohibition.

Ratification:

Depending upon which ratification method is chosen by Congress, either the state legislatures vote up-or-down on the proposed amendment, or the voters elect a state ratifying convention to vote up-or-down. If three fourths of the states vote to ratify, the amendment becomes part of the Constitution.

Forbidden Subjects:

Article V contains two explicitly forbidden subjects and one implicitly forbidden subject.

Explicitly forbidden:

• No amendment may be added to the Constitution concerning slavery or capitation taxes until 1808. We’re well past that deadline.
• No amendment may be added to the Constitution to change the principle of equal representation in the Senate unless every state deprived of that right approves. If California wants five senators, every state must have five senators. To permit violation of this principle, every state would have to ratify the amendment, not just three fourths.

Implicitly forbidden:

• The Constitution of 1787 may not be abrogated and replaced with a new document. Article V only authorizes “a convention for proposing amendments to this Constitution;” therefore, the Constitution of 1787 is locked in place forever. Congress and an Amendments Convention have exactly the same Proposal power; therefore, neither Congress nor an Amendments Convention can start over. Both bodies can only propose amendments.

Reference works:

Frequently Asked Questions About a Convention of the States

Proposing Constitutional Amendments by a Convention of the States: A Handbook for State Lawmakers

State Initiation of Constitutional Amendments: A Guide for Lawyers and Legislative Drafters