Amendments to the Constitution

Since the Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787 there have only been twenty seven amendments ratified. The process to ratifying an amendment is not an easy one, so the need to adopt these changes has to be great to pass through this process. Each of the amendments that have been passed have effected this society greatly, some of the most fundamental changes to the society have come through the ratification of the thirteenth through fifteenth amendments. The process of passing an amendment to the Constitution is a lengthy and complex process. The first step is to have a proposal written for the future amendment. There are two ways this proposal can begin, the first way is for two-thirds of both houses of Congress to vote to amend the constitution. The other way a proposal can move forward is that two-thirds of the state legislatures can formally ask Congress to call a constitutional convention to propose an amendment. After the proposal has been accepted, the process of ratification begins. The process to ratify an amendment is not any easier. Three fourths of the state legislatures must approve the amendment or each states ratification conventions must accept the amendment. There is one stipulation on this process, the Supreme Court has ruled that the ratification process must be completed within a reasonable time after the proposal. Although there has not been any official time frame, the longest amendment process was seven years for amendments eighteen through twenty two. The amendment process is in place to add laws to the Constitution. While there aren’t any actual problems in the Constitution that need to be fixed, the amendments add laws that help society as it continues to progress. As time goes on and society evolves, the need to protect different groups is needed, this is what the country dealt with after the