ABSTRACT
The constitutional amending process is the two-step procedure, outlined in Article V of the US Constitution that provides for written additions to the document. The Constitution further requires that amendments be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Given the difficulty of the amending process, many expansions of individual rights have necessarily been initiated by changing customs and usages as well as through judicial decisions. Congress seemingly exercised congressional discretion in 1992 when it accepted the belated ratification of the Twenty-seventh Amendment limiting the timing of congressional pay raises. Although members of Congress have introduced more than 11,000 proposals, it has only proposed thirty-three amendments by the requisite two- thirds majorities. Two-thirds majorities in Congress have proposed all amendments that have been ratified, but there is an unused alternative that provides that Congress must call a convention to propose amendments if so requested by two-thirds of the states.
