Article V- Amending the Constitution

Article V Amending the
Constitution

Unit 7-6

Lesson Overview

• Students Will Be Able To:

o Identify the features of Article V (5).

o Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the amendment process established by Article V (5).

• Vocabulary:

o 18th Amendment, 21st Amendment, 27th Amendment, Repeal

Labelling

How do we add amendments to the Constitution?

Drag labels to their correct position on the image

2/3 vote in each house of Congress

3/4 of the States

President approves

3/4 vote in each house of Congress

Creating the Stable Foundation for the Constitution

• Since 1787 there have been only 27 Amendments added to the original

Constitutional text

o The first 10 were the Bill of Rights and they were added right away in 1791

o Compared to other countries this is a very small number of changes/additions

• The Framers recognized that they needed a way to change the

Constitution if needed however both anti-federalists and federalists
debated how to do this.

• Compromised and said that both the Congress and the States would have
to be involved

• So, the Amendment process is there but it is a hard process so that

makes the Constitution a stable document

o Plus, the Amendments are additions, so the original text is always there

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Article V (5)

• Two sentences are used here to specify two ways the Constitution cannot be

changed at all:

o The first prohibits amending the Constitution with regards to importing enslaved people
before 1808

o The second says that there cannot be any changes that would deny equal representation in
the Senate

Multiple Select

According to Article V, who or what groups (2 of them) have the authority to propose amendments to the Constitution?

• The voters

• Conventions called by state legislators

• The president

• Congress

The Amendment Process

• Amendments can only be proposed if there are
supermajorities

o 2/3 of both houses of Congress or 2/3 of the state
legislatures

• To ratify an amendment, you will need:

o ¾ of the state legislatures

o ¾ of the state constitutional conventions

• Point To Ponder- Why do you think it takes so

much to propose and ratify an amendment?

Multiple Select

How does the method to propose and ratify amendments differ from the other methods of proposal and ratification? (2 correct answers)

• untested procedures for how the state conventions would function

• all of the states are required to call for a constitutional convention

• delegates to state conventions must be approved by Congress

Repeal of an Amendment

• The 21st Amendment is unique for two reasons:

o It is the only amendment to Repeal- to end or cancel,
a previous law or amendment

o It was only ratified by state conventions and not
Congress

• The 18th Amendment- outlaws the manufacture,
sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors

o This began the era known as Prohibition in 1919

o Social and reform movements to make alcohol illegal

• The 21st Amendment- ratified in 1933, repealed
the 18th Amendment and gave states the
authority to regulate alcohol

The Repeal of Prohibition

The Amendments

• The Bill of Rights (BOR) was the result of a lot of
compromises between the anti-federalists and
federalists and were adopted in 1791

• Reminder- Think of the BOR like a shield,

protecting the people from the government

• The next 5 Amendments (#11 through 15) came

along in the next 79 years (Commonly referred to as the Civil Rights Amendments)

• Amendments #16 through #27 were ratified

between 1913 and 1992 and can be categorized
as:

o Changing the power of state and federal
government

o Changing the structure of the government

o Expanding the suffrage and the power of voters

Match

Match the following amendments

• 16th

• 17th

• 18th

• 19th

• 20th

Congress can collect taxes

Direct Vote of Senators

Prohibition

Women's Suffrage

Time in between election day and Jan 20

• Congress can collect taxes

• Direct Vote of Senators

• Prohibition

• Women's Suffrage

• Time in between election day and Jan 20

Failed Amendments

• There have been 6 proposed amendments that have passed Congress but failed to
be ratified (Remember that ratified has nothing to do with rats, but means that they
are passed)

o The original #11 Amendment wanted to set the number of HOR Members (Congress passed
a law on apportionment)

o The original #12 Amendment took 203 years to become ratified and became Amendment

#27- stating that members of Congress cannot grant themselves pay raises in a current
session on Congress

o Tried to pass an amendment in 1810 to prohibit American citizens from having titles of
nobility (Lord, Earl, etc..)

o In 1861 Congress attempted to pass an amendment that would prohibit Congress from
making any laws that interfered with slavery.

o In 1926 they tried to pass the Child Labor Amendment to allow the federal government to
regulate child labor under the age of 18.

o The Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed in 1923, passed in 1972 and still not
ratified, to guarantee equal rights under the law for all individuals regardless of their sex.

o The Washington D.C. Voting Rights Amendment expired in 1985 and sought to grant the
district (Washington D.C.) voting rights in Congress

Essential Question- How is the U.S. Constitution
both a static and changing document?

• The U.S. Constitution has been amended 27 times since its adoption in 1787.

• Article V establishes the amendment process and lays out two areas of the
Constitution that cannot be amended.

• The states and Congress must work together to amend the Constitution, which
requires supermajorities in both the proposal and ratification steps.

• Amendments to the Constitution either change the powers of the federal or state
government, the structure of the federal government, or expand the voting rights
of the people.

What's Next- In the upcoming lesson, you will learn how the amendments of the
Constitution preserve the civil liberties and civil rights of the people.