Thirty-three amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been proposed by the United States Congress and sent to the states for ratification since the Constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789. Twenty-seven of those, having been ratified by the requisite number of states, are part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments were adopted and ratified simultaneously and are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are collectively known as the Reconstruction Amendments. Six amendments adopted by Congress and sent to the states have not been ratified by the required number of states. Four of those amendments are still pending, one is closed and has failed by its own terms, and one is closed and has failed by the terms of the resolution proposing it. All 27 ratified and six unratified amendments are listed and detailed in the tables below.
Article Five of the United States Constitution details the two-step process for amending the nation's plan of government. Amendments must be properly proposed and ratified before becoming operative. This process was designed to strike a balance between the excesses of constant change and inflexibility.[1]
An amendment may be proposed and sent to the states for ratification by either:
To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 since 1959) by either (as determined by Congress):
Congress has also enacted statutes governing the constitutional amendment process. When a constitutional amendment is sent to the states for ratification, the Archivist of the United States is charged with responsibility for administering the ratification process under the provisions of .[5] Then, upon being properly ratified, the archivist issues a certificate proclaiming that an amendment has become an operative part of the Constitution.[3]
Since the early 20th century, Congress has, on several occasions, stipulated that an amendment must be ratified by the required number of states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states in order to become part of the Constitution. Congress's authority to set a ratification deadline was affirmed in 1939 by the Supreme Court of the United States in Coleman v. Miller .[6]
Approximately 11,848 proposals to amend the Constitution have been introduced in Congress since 1789 .[7] Collectively, members of the House and Senate typically propose around 200 amendments during each two-year term of Congress.[8] Proposals have covered numerous topics, but none made in recent decades have become part of the Constitution. Historically, most died in the congressional committees to which they were assigned. Since 1999, only about 20 proposed amendments have received a vote by either the full House or Senate. The last time a proposal gained the necessary two-thirds support in both the House and the Senate for submission to the states was the District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment in 1978. Only 16 states had ratified it when the seven-year time limit expired.[9]
| No. | Subject | Ratification[10] [11] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Proposed | Completed | Time span | |||||
| [12] | Protects freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition the government. | ||||||
| [13] | Protects the right to keep and bear arms. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [14] | Restricts the quartering of soldiers in private homes. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [15] | Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets requirements for search warrants based on probable cause. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [16] | Sets rules for indictment by grand jury and eminent domain, protects the right to due process and prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [17] | Protects the right to a speedy public trial by jury, to notification of criminal accusations, to confront the accuser, to obtain witnesses and to retain counsel. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [18] | Provides for the right to a jury trial in civil lawsuits. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [19] | Prohibits excessive fines and excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [20] | States that rights not enumerated in the Constitution are retained by the people. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| [21] | States that the federal government possesses only those powers delegated, or enumerated, to it through the Constitution, and that all other powers are reserved to the states, or to the people. | September 25, 1789 | December 15, 1791 | ||||
| Immunizes states from suits brought by out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders; lays the foundation for state sovereign immunity. | March 4, 1794 | February 7, 1795 | |||||
| Establishes that the vice president is elected together with the president rather than as the runner-up in the presidential election. | December 9, 1803 | June 15, 1804 | |||||
| Abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. | January 31, 1865 | December 6, 1865 | |||||
| Defines citizenship, contains the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause, and deals with post–Civil War issues. | June 13, 1866 | July 9, 1868 | |||||
| Prohibits the denial of the right to vote based on race, color or previous condition of servitude. | February 26, 1869 | February 3, 1870 | |||||
| Permits Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the various states or basing it on the United States Census. | July 12, 1909 | February 3, 1913 | |||||
| Establishes the direct election of United States senators by popular vote. | May 13, 1912 | April 8, 1913 | |||||
| Prohibits the manufacturing or sale of alcohol within the United States. (Repealed on December 5, 1933 by the 21st Amendment.) | December 18, 1917 | January 16, 1919 | |||||
| Grants women the right to vote. | June 4, 1919 | August 18, 1920 | |||||
| Changes the dates on which the terms of the president and vice president, and of members of Congress, begin and end, to January 20 and January 3 respectively. States that if the president-elect dies before taking office, the vice president–elect is to be inaugurated as president. | March 2, 1932 | January 23, 1933 | |||||
| [22] | Repeals the 18th Amendment and makes it a federal offense to transport or import intoxicating liquors into U.S. states and territories where prohibited by law. | February 20, 1933 | December 5, 1933 | ||||
| [23] | Limits the number of times a person can be elected president. | March 21, 1947 | February 27, 1951 | ||||
| [24] | Grants the District of Columbia electors in the Electoral College. | June 16, 1960 | March 29, 1961 | ||||
| Prohibits the revocation of voting rights based upon failure to pay taxes. | September 14, 1962 | January 23, 1964 | |||||
| Addresses succession to the presidency and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the vice president and responding to presidential disabilities. | July 6, 1965 | February 10, 1967 | |||||
| Lowers the voting age to 18 years. | March 23, 1971 | July 1, 1971 | |||||
| Delays laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until after the next election of representatives. | September 25, 1789< | -- Do not edit this date, 1789 is correct--> | May 7, 1992< | -- Do not edit this date, 1992 is correct--> | |||
| State (in order of statehood) | Amendment | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |
| State (in order of statehood) | 1–10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| Amendment | ||||||||||||||||||
| Source: [25] | ||||||||||||||||||
| Title | Subject | Status | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Congressional Apportionment Amendment | Would strictly regulate the number of seats in the United States House of Representatives. | Pending since September 25, 1789. Latest ratification took place on June 27, 1792. | |
| Titles of Nobility Amendment | Would strip citizenship from any United States citizen who accepts a title of nobility, or who accepts any present, pension, office or emolument from a foreign power without the consent of Congress. | Pending since May 1, 1810. Latest ratification took place on December 9, 1812. | |
| Corwin Amendment | Would make the states' "domestic institutions" (i.e. slavery) impervious to the constitutional amendment procedures established in Article V and immune to abolition or interference from Congress. | Pending since March 2, 1861. Latest ratification took place on June 2, 1863. | |
| Child Labor Amendment | Would empower the federal government to limit, regulate and prohibit child labor. | Pending since June 2, 1924. Latest ratification took place on February 25, 1937. | |
| Equal Rights Amendment | Would ensure the equality of rights by the federal or state governments based on gender. | Proposed March 22, 1972. Initial ratification period ended March 22, 1979; purported[26] extension period ended June 30, 1982; amendment failed. | |
| District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment | Would treat the District of Columbia as if it were a state regarding representation in Congress (including repealing the 23rd Amendment), representation in the Electoral College and participation in the process by which the Constitution is amended. | Proposed August 22, 1978. Ratification period ended August 22, 1985; amendment failed. | |
| Y indicates that state ratified amendment | ||||||||
| N indicates that state rejected amendment | ||||||||
| Y(‡) indicates that state ratified amendment after first rejecting it | ||||||||
| Y(×) indicates that state ratified amendment, but later rescinded that ratification | ||||||||
| ⋈ indicates that state did not complete action on amendment during stated ratification period. | ||||||||
| ⋈Y indicates that state ratified amendment after stated ratification period. | ||||||||
| "" An empty cell indicates that state has not completed action on pending amendment. | ||||||||
| State (in alphabetical order) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| nowrap | ! | 11 | 12 | 5 | 28 | 35 | 16 | |