List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution

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This is a list of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution. Some are proposed outside of government by experts or professors that study the constitution, while most are proposed by a member or members of the legislative branch of the United States Government. Many amendments are proposed every year. Most never get out of Congressional committees. Few of the amendments below passed even the first constitutional hurdle: approval by two-thirds majorities in both Houses of Congress. For a more information on amendments that have been approved by Congress, but not by the state legislatures, see Unsuccessful attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution.

Contents 1 Proposed Amendments not approved by Congress or Expired 1.1 19th century 1.2 20th century 1.3 2000 to 2003 1.4 2004 1.5 2005 to 2007 1.6 2009 2 Proposed Amendments Approved by Congress and Awaiting Ratification 2.1 Congressional Apportionment Amendment 2.2 Titles of Nobility Amendment 2.3 Corwin Amendment 2.4 Child Labor Amendment 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Proposed Amendments not approved by Congress or Expired

The following are largely amendments that have gained national attention and/or debate, presumably by concerning an issue of contemporary political relevance to Americans in general. A two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress is required to pass a constitutional amendment. Ultimately, they were not approved by congress and did not moved to the ratification step. Some were never submitted to congress, while many never get out of Congressional committees. Also listed here are amendments approved by congress with expiry dates and did not receive ratification before the set date came to be and are considered 'dead'.

[edit] 19th century

• Blaine Amendment, proposed in 1875, would have banned public funds from going to religious purposes, in order to prevent Catholics from taking advantage of such funds; although it failed to pass, many states adopted such provisions.
• Christian Amendment, proposed first in February, 1863, it has been proposed also in 1874, 1896 and 1910 with none passing. The last attempt in 1954 did not come to a vote.
• The Crittenden Compromise, a joint resolution that included six constitutional amendments that would protect slavery. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected it in 1861 and Abraham Lincoln was elected on a platform that opposed the expansion of slavery. The South's reaction to the rejection paved the way for the secession of the Confederate states and the American Civil War.

[edit] 20th century

• Anti-Miscegenation Amendment, proposed by Congressman Seaborn Roddenbery in 1912 to forbid interracial marriages nation-wide. 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, which would limit the Federal Government's treaty making power. It was defeated 60-31 by 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 Democratic Texas Congressman 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.
• District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment, approved by Congress in 1978, would have given the residents of the District of Columbia full voting rights. It expired unratified in 1985.
• Equal Rights Amendment, approved by Congress in 1972, which would make government discrimination based on a citizen's sex illegal. Its original 7 year deadline was extended to 10 years, before expiring. Whether or not the deadline can be again extended and the amendment ratified is a controversial issue.
• 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, it would overturn 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 easily rejected by 18 votes, in the Senate, on June 28, 1983.
• Ludlow Amendment, proposed by Congressman Louis Ludlow in 1937. This amendment would heavily reduce America's ability to be involved in war.

[edit] 2000 to 2003

• Removal of citizenship from children of illegal immigrants, proposed by Mark Foley on March 31, 2003.
• Balanced Budget Amendment, in which Congress and the President are forced to balance the budget every year.
• 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."^[1]
• Protecting the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and National Motto, proposed on February 27, 2003 by Oklahoma Congressman Lucas.^[2]

[edit] 2004

• Every Vote Counts Amendment — proposed by Congressman Gene Green on September 14, 2004. It would abolish the electoral college.^[3] 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 by-election process.^[4]
• Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment — proposed also by Senator Hatch. It would allow naturalized citizens with at least twenty years' citizenship to become president. Many people^[who?] believe he wants this amendment so that Austrian-born California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has endorsed this amendment, can make a run for the presidency in the near future.
• 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 has been introduced in the United States Congress four times: in 2003, 2004, 2005/2006 and 2008 by multiple members of Congress (with support from President George W. Bush). It would define marriage and prohibit same-sex marriage, even at the state level.

[edit] 2005 to 2007

• Several constitutional amendments simultaneously proposed by Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. on March 2, 2005, including amendments concerning:

1. The right of citizens of the United States to health care of equal high quality.
2. The right of all citizens of the United States to a public education of equal high quality.
3. The right to vote.
4. The right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment.
5. The right to decent, safe, sanitary, and affordable housing.
6. Equality of rights and reproductive rights. This amendment is essentially a modified version of the Equal Rights Amendment which would bolster Roe v. Wade.
7. The right to full employment and balanced growth.
8. Taxing the people of the United States progressively.

• Abolishment of personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibition of the United States Government from engaging in business in competition with its citizens, proposed by Rep. Ron Paul on January 26, 2005.

• In 2007, Professor Larry J. Sabato proposed a series of 23 constitutional amendments through a national constitutional convention in his book A More Perfect Constitution. The proposals ranged from term limits, to overhauling the Electoral College, to implementing a new calendar for presidential primaries.^[5] No action by any level of government has been made to introduce or to approve of any one of his proposals.

• Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States prohibiting the penalty of death. Introduced April 16, 2008, the day of the Supreme Court's ruling in Baze v. Rees that lethal injection is not cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment, by Minnesota Democratic Representative Betty McCollum, cosponsored by Arizona Democratic Representative Raul Grijalva, and California Democratic Representatives Michael Honda, Barbara Lee, and Fortney Stark. It was referred to the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties on April 28, 2008 and has since seen no further action taken.

[edit] 2009

• On January 6, 2009, Representative Jose Serrano proposed an amendment to repeal the 22nd Amendment.^[6] The resolution "died" before making it out of its respective committee.

• On January 25, 2009, Senator Russ Feingold put out a press release saying that he planned to introduce an amendment to end gubernatorial appointments to Senate vacancies.^[7]

• Twenty-second Amendment repeal: proposed as early as 1989 by various congressmen including Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. José Serrano,^[8] Rep. Howard Berman,^[9] and Sen. Harry Reid^[10], 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 of 2009.

• On February 25, 2009, Senator Lisa Murkowski, because she believes the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 would be unconstitutional if adopted, proposed a Constitutional amendment which would provide a Representative to the District of Columbia.^[11]

• On May 4, 2009, Professor Randy Barnett proposed a Bill of Federalism - a set of ten amendments concerned largely with limiting Federal Power. This was an expansion of a draft he had proposed for a single 'Federalism Amendment' he had proposed in the Wall Street Journal.^[12] No action by any level of government has been made to introduce or to approve of any one of his proposals.

• On November 11 2009, Republican Senator Jim DeMint proposed term limit to the congress where the max limit for senators will be 2 terms total of 12 years and for house 3 terms total for 6 years.^[13]

[edit] Proposed Amendments Approved by Congress and Awaiting Ratification

These are proposed amendments that passed a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress. They were therefore approved by congress and moved to the ratification step requiring ratification by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states (38 states with 50 states currently in the Union). It should be noted the act of rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment, on the part of state legislatures, has no legal recognition, such actions have political ramifications only and are symbolic of their strong opposition to the amendment. All of the following proposed amendments are still technically active and have never expired or 'died' and could be passed by State Legislators at any time.

[edit] 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 the following 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 the following state legislature:

1. Delaware on January 28, 1790

[edit] 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 the following 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 the following three state legislatures:

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

[edit] Corwin Amendment

• The Corwin Amendment, approved by Congress in 1861, which would have forbidden any constitutional amendment that would interfere with slavery within a state (but not within a territory). Little action was ever taken on this amendment due to the start of the American Civil War on April 12, 1861. The amendment was ratified by the following 3 states:

1. Ohio (May 13, 1861)
2. Maryland (January of 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)

[edit] Child Labor Amendment

• The Child Labor Amendment, approved by Congress in 1924, would have given Congress authority to enact child labor laws. The amendment was ratified by the following 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 the following eleven state legislatures:

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 three times)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Some proposed amendments to the United States Constitution
• Unamendments, by Jason Mazzone, Iowa Law Review, Vol. 90, p. 1747-1855, 2005.
• GovTrack: Bills by Subject: Constitutional Amendments

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