Proposed Constitutional Amendments

Proposed Constitutional Amendments Approved By Congress

Not Ratified

Equal Rights Amendment

The Equal Rights Amendment, approved by Congress March 22, 1972, would make government discrimination based on a citizen’s sex illegal. The initial pace of state legislative ratifications was rapid during 1972 and 1973. The rate of ratification then slowed considerably with only three ratifications during 1974, just one in 1975, none at all in 1976 and only one in 1977. The 92nd Congress, in proposing the ERA, had set a seven-year time limit for its ratification and, by the end of that deadline on March 22, 1979, a total of 35 of the required 38 states had ratified it.

The deadline was extended to ten years (June 30, 1982), before expiring but no additional states ratified the amendment. It has been argued that the amendment can still be ratified if Congress re-extends the deadline, if three more states ratify the amendment (bringing the number of states up to the required thirty-eight) and if the archivist of the United States or the U.S. Congress accept the ratification as valid. This method of ratification is controversial and contrary to existing court precedent, but in recent years states have begun to take up the issue again (the Illinois House of Representatives voted to ratify and the Florida Senate voted 7-3 for the amendment in committee).

District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment

The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, approved by Congress on August 22, 1978, would have given the residents of the District of Columbia full representation in both houses of the Congress in addition to full participation in the Electoral College. It expired unratified in 1985.

Requiring the approvals of lawmakers in at least 38 of the 50 states, the amendment was ratified by only 16 states prior to the August 22, 1985 deadline:

1. New Jersey on September 11, 1978
2. Michigan on December 13, 1978
3. Ohio on December 21, 1978
4. Minnesota on March 19, 1979
5. Massachusetts on March 19, 1979
6. Connecticut on April 11, 1979
7. Wisconsin on November 1, 1979
8. Maryland on March 19, 1980
9. Hawaii on April 17, 1980
10. Oregon on July 6, 1981
11. Maine on February 16, 1983
12. West Virginia on February 23, 1983
13. Rhode Island on May 13, 1983
14. Iowa on January 19, 1984
15. Louisiana on June 24, 1984
16. Delaware on June 28, 1984

Awaiting Ratification

The following amendments that passed a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. They were therefore approved by Congress and moved to the next step of ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states (38 states with 50 states currently in the Union). It should be noted that the act of rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment by a state legislatures has no legal recognition, but such actions have political ramifications and are symbolic of the state’s strong opposition to the amendment. All of the following proposed amendments are still technically active and have never expired or died and could be still ratified by state legislatures.

Congressional Apportionment Amendment

The Congressional Apportionment Amendment, approved by Congress in 1789 as part of the proposed Bill of Rights. This is the only one of the original twelve amendments in the Bill of Rights never to have been ratified by the states. Its purpose was to further specify how the seats in the House of Representatives should be apportioned. It has been ratified by 11 states:

1. New Jersey on November 20, 1789
2. Maryland on December 19, 1789
3. North Carolina on December 22, 1789
4. South Carolina on January 19, 1790
5. New Hampshire on January 25, 1790
6. New York on March 27, 1790
7. Rhode Island on June 15, 1790
8. Pennsylvania on September 21, 1791 (after rejecting it on March 10, 1790)
9. Virginia on October 25, 1791
10. Vermont on November 3, 1791
11. Kentucky on June 24, 1792

The amendment was rejected by one state:

1. Delaware on January 28, 1790

Titles of Nobility Amendment

The Titles of Nobility Amendment, approved by Congress in 1810, would have revoked the citizenship of anyone accepting a foreign title of nobility. The amendment was ratified by 12 states:

1. Maryland (December 25, 1810)
2. Kentucky (January 31, 1811)
3. Ohio (January 31, 1811)
4. Delaware (February 2, 1811)
5. Pennsylvania (February 6, 1811)
6. New Jersey (February 13, 1811)
7. Vermont (October 24, 1811)
8. Tennessee (November 21, 1811)
9. Georgia (November 22, 1811)
10. North Carolina (December 23, 1811)
11. Massachusetts (February 27, 1812)
12. New Hampshire (December 9, 1812)

The amendment was rejected by three states:

1. New York (March 12, 1812)
2. Connecticut (May 13, 1813)
3. Rhode Island (September 15, 1814)

Corwin Amendment

The Corwin Amendment, approved by Congress in 1861, would have forbidden attempts to subsequently amend the Constitution to empower the Congress to “abolish or interfere” with the “domestic institutions” of the states, including “persons held to labor or service” (a reference to slavery). Corwin’s resolution emerged as the House of Representatives’s version of an earlier, identical proposal in the Senate offered by Senator William H. Seward of New York. This amendment sought to protect slavery from federal intervention and was a last-ditch effort to avert the outbreak of the American Civil War. Little action was ever taken on this amendment after the start of the Civil War on April 12, 1861.

When viewed as an entrenched clause, the Corwin Amendment—had it been ratified—might have been construed to prohibit the Thirteenth Amendment, ratified in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the nation and gave Congress enforcement power. The Corwin Amendment might also have prevented the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment and the voting rights amendments, all which dealt with the states’ internal affairs. A competing theory suggests a later amendment conflicting with an already-ratified Corwin Amendment would either explicitly repeal the Corwin Amendment (as the Twenty-first Amendment explicitly repealed the Eighteenth Amendment) or been inferred to have partially or completely repealed an adopted Corwin Amendment.^[2]

The amendment was ratified by three states:

1. Ohio (May 13, 1861)
2. Maryland (January 1862) (Actual date not known, possibly due to military activity in the Civil War)
3. Illinois (1862) (this ratification is disputed as lawmakers approved the amendment while they were sitting in session as a state constitutional convention rather than as a legislature, thus causing some to see this particular ratification as possibly invalid)

Child Labor Amendment

The Child Labor Amendment, approved by Congress in 1924, would have given Congress exclusive authority to enact child labor laws. It reads: “Section. 1. The Congress shall have power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under eighteen years of age. Section. 2. The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation enacted by the Congress.” The amendment was ratified by 28 states:

1. Arkansas (1924)
2. Arizona (1925)
3. California (1925)
4. Wisconsin (1925)
5. Montana (1927)
6. Colorado (1931)
7. Illinois (1933)
8. Iowa (1933)
9. Maine (1933)
10. Michigan (1933)
11. Minnesota (1933)
12. New Hampshire (1933)
13. New Jersey (1933)
14. North Dakota (1933)
15. Ohio (1933)
16. Oklahoma (1933)
17. Oregon (1933)
18. Pennsylvania (1933)
19. Washington (1933)
20. West Virginia (1933)
21. Idaho (1935)
22. Indiana (1935)
23. Utah (1935)
24. Wyoming (1935)
25. Kentucky (1936)
26. Kansas (1937)
27. Nevada (1937)
28. New Mexico (1937)

The amendment was rejected by twelve states:

1. North Carolina (1924)
2. Florida (1925)
3. Georgia (1925)
4. Massachusetts (1925)
5. Missouri (1925)
6. South Carolina (1925)
7. Tennessee (1925)
8. Texas (1925)
9. Vermont (1925)
10. Virginia (1926)
11. Maryland (1927)
12. Louisiana (1924, 1934, and 1936) (rejected the Child Labor Amendment on three separate occasions)

Proposed Constitutional Amendments Not Approved by Congress

Approximately 11,372 measures have been proposed to amend the Constitution from 1789 through December 31, 2008. Most have died in committee, or did not receive the 2/3 vote of both Houses needed to send the amendment to the states for ratification.

20th century

• Anti-Miscegenation Amendment
  Proposed by Representative Seaborn Roddenbery in 1912 to forbid interracial marriages nationwide. Similar amendments were proposed by Congressman Andrew King in 1871 and by Senator Coleman Blease in 1928. None were passed by Congress.
• Bricker Amendment
  Proposed in 1951 by Ohio Senator John W. Bricker, would have limited the federal government’s treaty-making power. It was passed 60-31 in the Senate, a single vote short of the two-thirds necessary.
• Common Property Amendment
  Proposed by various ecological activists in the 1990s, would protect common property for future generations.
• Death Penalty Abolition Amendment
  Proposed in 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1995 by Representative Henry González to prohibit the imposition of capital punishment “by any State, Territory, or other jurisdiction within the United States”. The amendment was referred to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, but never made it out of committee.
• Flag Desecration Amendment
  First proposed in 1968 to give Congress the power to make acts such as flag burning illegal. During each term of Congress from 1995 to 2005, the proposed amendment was passed by the House of Representatives, however, never the Senate; coming closest during voting on June 27, 2006, with 66 in support and 34 opposed (one vote short).
• Human Life Amendment
  First proposed in 1973, would overturn the Roe v. Wade court ruling. A total of 330 proposals using varying texts have been proposed with almost all dying in committee. The only version that reached a formal floor vote, the Hatch-Eagleton Amendment, was rejected by 18 votes in the Senate on June 28, 1983.
• Ludlow Amendment
  Proposed by Representative Louis Ludlow in 1937. This amendment would heavily reduce America’s ability to be involved in war.

21st century

• Citizenship
  Removal of citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, proposed by Florida Representative Mark Foley on March 31, 2003.
• Balanced Budget
  A Balanced Budget Amendment, in which Congress and the President are forced to balance the budget every year, has been introduced many times.
• School Prayer Amendment
  Proposed on April 9, 2003, to establish that “The people retain the right to pray and to recognize their religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions on public property, including schools.”
• References to God
  Protecting the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and National Motto, proposed on February 27, 2003, by Oklahoma Representative Frank Lucas.
• Every Vote Counts Amendment
  Proposed by Congressman Gene Green on September 14, 2004. It would abolish the electoral college. Partly a response to the controversy surrounding Al Gore‘s defeat in the 2000 election.
• Continuity of Government Amendment
  Proposed in 2004 by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch. It would ensure the continuity of operations of the United States Congress in the case of emergencies in which a large number of senators or representatives are incapacitated. Such an amendment would allow Congress itself to make emergency appointments to fill vacancies, rather than going through the usual special election process.
• Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment
  Proposed also by Senator Orrin Hatch. It would allow naturalized citizens with at least twenty years’ citizenship to become president.
• Seventeenth Amendment repeal
  Proposed in 2004 by Georgia Senator Zell Miller. It would reinstate the appointment of Senators by state legislatures as originally required by Article One, Section Three, Clauses One and Three.
• The Federal Marriage Amendment
  Introduced in the United States Congress four times: in 2003, 2004, 2005/2006 and 2008 by multiple members of Congress (with support from then-President George W. Bush). It would define marriage and prohibit same-sex marriage, even at the state level.
• Twenty-second Amendment repeal
  Proposed as early as 1989 by various congressmen including Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. José Serrano, Rep. Howard Berman, and Sen. Harry Reid, have introduced legislation, but each resolution died before making it out of its respective committee. The current amendment limits the president to two elected terms in office, and up to two years succeeding a President in office. Last action was in February 2009.
• DC Voting Rights
  On February 25, 2009, Senator Lisa Murkowski, because she believed the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 would be unconstitutional if adopted, proposed a Constitutional amendment that would provide a Representative to the District of Columbia.
• Term Limits
  On November 11, 2009, Republican Senator Jim DeMint proposed term limits for the U.S. Congress, where the limit for senators will be two terms for a total of 12 years and for representatives, three terms for a total of six years.
• People’s Rights Amendment
  On November 15, 2011, Representative James P. McGovern introduced the People’s Rights Amendment, a proposal to limit the Constitution’s protections only to the rights of natural persons, and not corporations. This amendment would overturn the United States Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
• Saving American Democracy Amendment
  On December 8, 2011 Senator Bernie Sanders filed The Saving American Democracy Amendment, which would state that corporations are not entitled to the same constitutional rights as people. It would also ban corporate campaign donations to candidates, and give Congress and the states broad authority to regulate spending in elections. This amendment would overturn the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
• Right to Vote Amendment
  Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. backed the Right to Vote Amendment, a proposal to explicitly guarantee the right to vote for all legal U.S. citizens and empower Congress to protect this right; he introduced a resolution for the amendment in the 107th,108th 109th, 110th, 111^th and 112th, all of which died in committee. On May 13, 2013, Reps. Mark Pocan and Keith Ellison re-introduced the bill.
• Democracy for All Amendment
  The Democracy For All Amendment, was introduced in both the 113th, and 114th Congresses. It would grant Congress and the States the ability to limit the raising and spending of money in campaigns for public office. It would also grant Congress and the States the ability to distinguish between a natural person and an artificial entity, such as a corporation. The resolution was introduced in the Senate by Senator Tom Udall and in the House by Representative Ted Deutch during both congresses. During the 113th congress the resolution received 129 co-sponsors in the House(all democrats), and 48 co-sponsors in the Senate (46 Democrats, 2 Independents). In the Senate the resolution was never voted on, and in the House it was sent to House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. the In the 2015 (114th congress) version the resolution received 162 co-sponsors (161 Democrats, 1 Republican) in the House, while in the Senate, the resolution received 42 co-sponsors (40 Democrats, 2 Independents). The resolution was sent to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, and Senate Committee on the Judiciary, but failed to pass either.
• Abolition of the Electoral College
  On November 15, 2016, Senator Barbara Boxer of California introduced a proposal to abolish the Electoral College, following Donald Trump becoming the fifth president in U.S. history to lose the popular vote, but still win the election. The proposed amendment would also give voters in the District of Columbia and territories the ability to vote for President and Vice President.