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)