United States Constitution | Article 5 | Summary

Summary

Article 5 outlines the way constitutional amendments may be made. With a two-thirds vote from both the House and the Senate, Congress may propose an amendment. Additionally, two-thirds of the states may call for a constitutional convention to propose an amendment. Then three-fourths of the states must vote for the amendment for it to be ratified. Two specific issues are forbidden as amendments, however: taking away any state's representation in the Senate and banning the slave trade prior to the 1808 expiry laid out in Article 1.

Analysis

There have been 27 amendments ratified since the creation of the Constitution. All 27 were proposed in the same way—by a two-thirds vote in Congress. All but one were ratified by a three-quarters vote in Congress. The only amendment to be ratified in the alternative way, the three-quarters vote in a state constitutional convention, was the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition in 1933.