State Legislative Ratification of Federal Constitutional Amendments: An Overview
![handle is hein.journals/urich9 and id is 281 raw text is: STATE LEGISLATIVE RATIFICATION OF FEDERAL
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: AN OVERVIEW
Philip L. Martin*
Article V of the United States Constitution sets out the amend-
ment procedure,' which consists of two stages, proposal and ratifica-
tion. Each stage, in turn, offers two alternative procedures which
can be interchanged to provide four means of effecting constitu-
tional alteration. An amendment may be proposed either by a two-
thirds vote of each house of Congress or by a national convention
assembled upon proper application by the legislatures of two-thirds
of the states; and an amendment may be ratified, as Congress de-
cides, either by three-fourths of the state legislatures or by conven-
tions in three-fourths of the states. To date, the legislative mode of
ratification has been selected for all but one2 of the 32 resolutions
submitted to the states,3 but despite the frequency of its use as
contrasted to the convention method, very little is known about its
origin and evolution. In particular, there are a number of constitu-
tional, as well as practical questions which require definitive an-
swers. For example, the resolution guaranteeing equal rights to
women (ERA) is currently before the states where it has been ap-
proved by either 31 or 33 legislatures, depending upon whether rati-
fication can be validly rescinded. To date, Nebraska and Tennessee
have revoked their ratification and several other states are contem-
plating similar action.
*Professor of Political Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. B.S.,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1956; M.A., 1959, Ph.D., 1965, University of North Carolina.
1. U.S. CONST. art. V.
2. Only the twenty-first amendment, which repealed prohibition, has been submitted to
state ratifying conventions. This experience and the attempts to use the convention route for
other amendments are examined in Martin, Convention Ratification of Federal Constitu-
tional Amendments, 82 POL. Sci. Q. 61 (1967) [hereinafter cited as Martin].
3. In addition to the 26 amendments added to the Constitution, five other proposals sent
before the states have failed to be ratified. These concerned: apportioning the House of
Representatives (1789); compensating members of Congress (1789); permitting United States
citizens to accept foreign titles of nobility (1810); recognizing slavery where it existed in the
states (1861); and regulating child labor (1924). At present a sixth resolution, the Equal
Rights Amendment for Women (1972), is circulating among the states.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/urich9&div=18&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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State Legislative Ratification of Federal Constitutional Amendments: An Overview
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