Changing the U.S. Constitution takes two steps, and the constitutional amendment process works the same way every time it has succeeded: Congress proposes an amendment by a two-thirds vote in both chambers, and three-fourths of the states ratify it. That is the whole architecture. Everything else — deadlines, certification, the never-used convention route — sits inside those two thresholds. Article V was written to make change possible but hard, and the numbers show it: only 27 amendments have been added since 1789.
How Congress Proposes an Amendment
A member of the House or Senate introduces a joint resolution containing the exact language of the proposed amendment. To move forward, it needs a two-thirds vote in both chambers. That threshold means two-thirds of the members present and voting with a quorum, not two-thirds of total membership. The Supreme Court settled that reading early on, and Congress has followed it ever since.
The President has no role. A joint resolution proposing an amendment does not go to the White House for signature or veto. In Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), Justice Samuel Chase stated during oral argument that the President “has nothing to do with the proposition, or adoption, of amendments to the Constitution.” The Court reinforced that position in Hawke v. Smith (1920).
Once both chambers pass the resolution, it goes directly to the National Archives and Records Administration’s Office of the Federal Register. Federal statute makes the Archivist of the United States responsible for administering everything that follows.
The Convention Route
Article V offers a second way to propose amendments that bypasses Congress. If two-thirds of state legislatures — 34 out of 50 — submit formal applications requesting a constitutional convention, Congress must call one. No convention for proposing amendments has ever been successfully called. Every one of the 27 amendments came through the congressional route.
Because the path has never been used, basic questions about how a convention would function are unresolved. The Constitution does not say how delegates would be chosen, how many each state would send, what voting rules would apply, or whether the convention’s subject matter could be limited to a single topic. Some states have laws assuming their legislatures would pick delegates; others have left the question open. Scholars disagree on whether Congress or the states would set the ground rules. In practice, waves of state applications on a given topic have sometimes pushed Congress to propose an amendment on its own rather than risk those unknowns.
How States Ratify an Amendment
After Congress proposes an amendment, the Archivist sends each governor a letter of notification with the text and supporting materials. Congress then specifies which of two ratification methods states must use. The default, used for every amendment except one, is ratification by state legislatures: 38 of the 50 must approve.
The alternative is state ratifying conventions. Congress has used this method exactly once, for the Twenty-First Amendment repealing Prohibition in 1933. The Constitution gives almost no guidance on how those conventions should be organized.
States face a binary choice under either method. They can accept or reject the amendment exactly as written. A state cannot rewrite the text, attach conditions, or approve part of it. A state that rejects an amendment can later reverse course and ratify — that has happened several times.
Ratification cannot be handed to the voters. In Hawke v. Smith, the Supreme Court held that “legislatures” in Article V means the representative legislative body, not the broader lawmaking process. A state constitutional provision requiring a public referendum on ratification of a federal amendment is invalid.
Can a State Rescind Its Ratification?
Several states have tried. Historical practice suggests it does not work. During ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment, New Jersey and Ohio both attempted to withdraw their approvals. Congress counted the ratifications anyway and declared the amendment adopted.
In Coleman v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court held that disputes over the effectiveness of state ratifications, including attempted rescissions, are political questions for Congress to resolve rather than issues for the courts. Congress has never accepted a rescission as valid. The practical answer is that a ratification, once given, sticks.
Deadlines and Pending Amendments
Article V says nothing about time limits. In Dillon v. Gloss (1921), the Supreme Court held that Congress has implied authority to set one. Starting with the Eighteenth Amendment in 1917, Congress has typically written a seven-year deadline into the proposing resolution. If 38 states do not ratify within that window, the amendment dies.
When Congress does not set a deadline, a proposed amendment can remain pending indefinitely. The Twenty-Seventh Amendment, which bars Congress from giving itself an immediate pay raise, was originally proposed in 1789 as part of the package that became the Bill of Rights. It was finally ratified in 1992, more than 202 years later.
The Equal Rights Amendment shows how contested deadlines can become. Congress proposed the ERA in 1972 with a seven-year deadline, later extended to 1982. Three additional states ratified after the original deadline had passed. The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded in 2020 and again in 2022 that the expired deadline was valid and enforceable, and the Archivist has stated that he cannot legally certify the amendment as adopted.
What Cannot Be Amended
Article V contains one permanent restriction: no state can be deprived of its equal representation in the Senate without that state’s consent. It was a concession to smaller states at the Constitutional Convention, and it remains the only explicitly unamendable feature of the Constitution.
Everything else is on the table. The Twenty-First Amendment repealed the Eighteenth outright, wiping Prohibition from the Constitution. There is no subject matter categorically off-limits so long as equal Senate representation is respected.
When the Amendment Becomes Law
Once the Office of the Federal Register receives authenticated ratification documents from 38 states, staff verify each document and confirm the count. They then prepare a formal proclamation for the Archivist to sign, certifying that the amendment is valid and has become part of the Constitution.
Federal law directs the Archivist to publish the certification along with a list of the ratifying states. It appears in the Federal Register and in the United States Statutes at Large. No further action from Congress or the President is required. The moment the Archivist signs, the new amendment carries the same legal force as any other part of the Constitution.