it. How long it takes for my amendments to be passed by House and Senate, and ratified by three-quarters of the state legislatures, will bedetermined by a combination of political leadership and the will of the American people.If Americans have a strong desire forthese rights– have a political fire burning in their bellies –suchamendments can be shuttledthrough the Houseand Senate and ratified relativelyquicklyafter a legitimate national debate on their substance and implications.26thamendment proves---timeframe is 3 monthsLegal Dictionary, 8[West's Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2, Copyright 2008 TheGale Group, Twenty-Sixth Amendment,-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/26th+Amendment]The Twenty-sixth Amendment was proposed on March 23, 1971,and ratified on July 1, 1971.Theratificationperiod of 107 days was the shortest inU.S.history.The amendment, which lowered the votingage from twenty-one to eighteen,was passed quicklyto avert potential problems in the 1972 elections.CP specifies a precise rule---means the legal effect is immediate.David A.Strauss, 1- Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law at the University of Chicago; “TheIrrelevance of Constitutional Amendments,” 114 Harv. L. Rev. 1457,Finally, for an amendment to matter, it must beunusuallydifficult to evade. An amendment thatspecifiesaprecise rule, for example, ismore likely to have an effectthan one that establishesonly a relatively vague norm. If its text is at all imprecise, an amendment that is adopted at thehigh-water mark of public sentiment will beprone to narrow constructionoroutright evasiononce public sentiment recedes, as the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were.
