Proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution currently in circulation would abolish the Electoral College, guarantee an affirmative right to vote, cap congressional terms, restructure the Supreme Court, enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment, protect digital privacy and reproductive autonomy, recognize environmental and healthcare rights, force a balanced federal budget, and overturn Citizens United. Only 27 amendments have been ratified since 1789, so the practical question with any of these is not whether the idea has support but whether it can survive Article V.1U.S. Senate. Constitution of the United States
The Bar Every Proposal Has to Clear
Article V offers two ways to propose an amendment. Two-thirds of both the House and Senate can approve it, which is how every existing amendment got its start. Alternatively, two-thirds of state legislatures (34 of 50 today) can call a convention for proposing amendments, though that has never happened.2Congress.gov. Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
Ratification then requires three-fourths of the states, currently 38. Congress decides whether ratification runs through state legislatures or state conventions, and it can attach a deadline. Since the 18th Amendment in 1917, most proposals have carried a time limit.2Congress.gov. Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution Thousands of amendments have been introduced across the country’s history. Twenty-seven have made it through.1U.S. Senate. Constitution of the United States
Election Reform Proposals
Replacing the Electoral College
The most-discussed election reform would scrap the Electoral College and elect the president by direct popular vote. The current system rests on the 12th Amendment, under which state-allocated electors formally cast the ballots that decide the presidency.3Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twelfth Amendment A candidate can and has won the presidency without winning the most individual votes nationwide, twice in the 21st century.
Short of an amendment, 17 states and Washington, D.C. have joined the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, agreeing to award their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner once member jurisdictions hold at least 270 electoral votes. The compact stands at 209 as of early 2026. An amendment would accomplish the same result without depending on individual states opting in and staying in.
A Right to Vote
The Constitution contains no affirmative right to vote. It bars specific forms of exclusion: race under the 15th Amendment, sex under the 19th, and age above 18 under the 26th.4USAGov. Voting Rights Laws and Constitutional Amendments None of those establishes voting as a fundamental right the federal government must actively guarantee.
A right-to-vote amendment would create that baseline, potentially requiring federal standards for registration, polling access, and mail-in voting. Some versions would also lower the voting age to 16.
Congress and the Courts
Congressional Term Limits
Members of Congress currently serve without any term cap. One resolution introduced in the 119th Congress would limit House members to three two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms.5Congress.gov. H.J.Res.12 – 119th Congress – Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States Supporters argue forced turnover breaks up entrenched power. Critics respond that term-limited legislators become dependent on lobbyists and long-serving staff for institutional knowledge. The political catch is that passing term limits requires votes from the officeholders they would remove.
Permanent Lobbying Bans
Federal law now imposes a one-year cooling-off period before a former House member can lobby Congress and a two-year period for former senators.6EveryCRSReport.com. Post-Employment, Revolving Door, Laws for Federal Personnel Proposed amendments would make those bans permanent, closing the revolving door between the Capitol and K Street entirely.
Supreme Court Terms and Size
Article III gives federal judges tenure “during good behaviour,” which functions as life tenure.7Congress.gov. Overview of Good Behavior Clause A leading reform would replace that with staggered 18-year terms, producing one new appointment every two years. Under one version, sitting justices would rotate to senior status by seniority, keeping their office and salary, and could be recalled if the active bench dropped below nine.
Separately, some proposals would expand the number of justices. The Constitution sets no fixed number, and Congress has changed it several times. The court has had nine members since 1869.8Supreme Court of the United States. The Court as an Institution Congress can already resize the bench by statute, so expansion by itself does not require an amendment. That flexibility is exactly what worries reformers on both sides, which is why some expansion proposals (often to 13, matching the federal appellate circuits) are paired with an amendment fixing the number in place.
Individual Rights Proposals
The Equal Rights Amendment
The ERA, first introduced in 1923, would bar the denial of legal rights on account of sex. Congress passed it in 1972 with a 1979 ratification deadline, later extended to 1982. The 38th ratification did not arrive until the 2017–2020 window, well past that deadline, and five states attempted to rescind their earlier ratifications in the 1970s.
In late 2024, the Archivist of the United States declined to certify the ERA as ratified, citing Justice Department opinions that it had expired. Litigation is ongoing. As of 2026, federal courts have generally sided with the government’s view that late ratifications don’t count, though the question is not fully closed.
Digital Privacy
The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, but it was drafted for physical spaces. Courts have stretched it to cover modern technology through the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test from Katz v. United States (1967).9Congress.gov. Constitution Annotated – Fourth Amendment Reasonable Expectation of Privacy A digital privacy amendment would establish an explicit right to control personal data and shield it from government and corporate collection without due process, and would give Congress clear authority to regulate private data handlers, not only government agencies.
Reproductive Autonomy
In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the Supreme Court held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion and returned the issue to the states.10Supreme Court of the United States. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Proposed amendments in response would place reproductive medical decisions in the constitutional text directly, overriding conflicting state laws.
A Green Amendment
A federal environmental rights amendment would recognize a right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment, and would give individuals standing to sue federal agencies that fail to protect those resources. Pennsylvania, Montana, and New York already have versions in their state constitutions.
Healthcare as a Right
Some proposals would establish a constitutional right to healthcare. This is a structural departure from most of the Bill of Rights, which sets limits on government action rather than affirmative duties. A healthcare amendment would create a positive right, obligating the government to provide something, which carries funding and enforcement demands that a prohibition does not.
Money and Elections
Balanced Budget Amendment
A balanced budget amendment would require that federal spending not exceed revenue in a given year. Most drafts allow Congress to waive the rule during emergencies with a supermajority, typically three-fifths or two-thirds of both chambers.11EveryCRSReport.com. Balanced Budget Amendments The national debt exceeded $38 trillion in early 2026.12Joint Economic Committee. National Debt Hits $38.43 Trillion
The tradeoff is macroeconomic. Recessions are usually confirmed after they begin, and a hard balance requirement would block the deficit spending governments typically use to stabilize the economy in a downturn. It would also complicate any use of trust-fund balances, including those backing Social Security and federal retirement programs, because drawing them down would push the budget out of balance.
Overturning Citizens United
In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the Supreme Court struck down restrictions on independent political spending by corporations and unions, holding that such spending is First Amendment–protected political speech.13Federal Election Commission. Citizens United v. FEC The practical result was a rapid expansion of outside spending through super PACs and undisclosed donor networks.
Proposed amendments would declare that constitutional rights belong to natural persons, not corporations, and that political spending is not the same as speech. That would restore congressional and state authority to cap contributions and require donor transparency.14Justia. Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) Because the ruling turns on the First Amendment, only an amendment can reliably override it; ordinary legislation would face the same fate as the law struck down in 2010.
Why So Few of These Move
Every proposal on this list, whatever its subject, funnels into the same choke point. Two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states have to agree. Ideas with broad polling support can stall for years, and the 27th Amendment, first proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992, shows the outer edge of how long a serious proposal can sit before it finally lands.15U.S. House of Representatives. The Twenty-seventh Amendment Drafting an amendment is the easy part. Getting 38 states to agree is where nearly all of them stop.