38 PART oNE • THE AmERiCAN sYsTEm
of the recommendations of the state ratifying conventions included specific rights that
were considered later by James Madison as he labored to draft what became the Bill of
Rights.
Madison had to cull through more than two hundred state recommendations. It was
no small task, and in retrospect he chose remarkably well. One of the rights appropriate for
constitutional protection that he left out was equal protection under the laws—but that was
not commonly regarded as a basic right at that time. Not until 1868 was the Constitution
amended to guarantee that no state shall deny equal protection to any person.
On December 15, 1791, the national Bill of Rights was adopted when Virginia agreed
to ratify the ten amendments. On ratification, the Bill of Rights became part of the U.S.
Constitution. The basic structure of American government had already been established.
Now the fundamental rights and liberties of individuals were protected, at least in theory,
at the national level. The proposed amendment that Madison characterized as “the most
valuable amendment in the whole lot”—which would have prohibited the states from
infringing on the freedoms of conscience, press, and jury trial—had been eliminated by
the Senate. Thus, the Bill of Rights as adopted did not limit state power, and individual
citizens had to rely on the guarantees contained in a particular state constitution or state
bill of rights. The country had to wait until the violence of the Civil War before significant
limitations on state power in the form of the Fourteenth Amendment became part of the
national Constitution.AlTERiNG THE CoNsTiTuTioN
As amended, the U.S. Constitution consists of about seven thousand words. It is shorter
than any state constitution except that of Vermont. The federal Constitution is short
because the founders intended it to be only a framework for the new government, to be
interpreted by succeeding generations. One of the reasons it has remained short is that
the formal amending procedure does not allow for changes to be made easily. Article V of
the Constitution outlines the ways in which amendments may be proposed and ratified.The Formal Amendment Process
Two formal methods of proposing an amendment to the Constitution are available: (1) a
two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress or (2) a national convention that is called by
Congress at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures. This second method has
never been used.
Ratification can occur by one of two methods: (1) by a positive vote in three-fourths
of the legislatures of the various states or (2) by special conventions called in the states and
a positive vote in three-fourths of them. The second method has been used only once, to
repeal Prohibition (the ban on the production and sale of alcoholic beverages). That situ-
ation was exceptional—prohibitionist forces were in control of the legislatures in many
states where a majority of the population actually supported repeal.
Congress has considered more than eleven thousand amendments to the Constitution.
Only thirty-three amendments have been submitted to the states after having been
approved by the required two-thirds vote in each chamber of Congress, and only twenty-
seven have been ratified—see Table 2–2 on the facing page. It should be clear that the
amendment process is very difficult. Because of competing social and economic interests,
the requirement that two-thirds of both the House and the Senate approve the amend-
ments is hard to achieve.Social Media
in Politics
The American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) is
the nation’s leading civil
liberties advocacy group.
If you friend “ACLU” on
Facebook, you’ll get a
regular stream of updates
on efforts to protect the
rights guaranteed by the
Constitution.LO5: Describe the process
of amending the Constitution
and the informal ways in which
constitutional interpretation has
changed over time.
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