Overview of Ratification of a Proposed Amendment

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Article V:

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.

Article V sets forth two methods by which states may ratify amendments to the Constitution.1 Congress determines which of the two methods the states must use in order to ratify a particular proposed amendment.2 The first method of ratification requires three-fourths of the state legislatures to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.3 Alternatively, Congress may require that three-fourths of state ratifying conventions approve a proposed amendment.4 Congress has specified this second mode of amendment only once, for the Twenty-First Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment establishing Prohibition.5

1: U.S. Const. art. V (stating that amendments to the Constitution may be ratified “by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress” ).
2: United States v. Sprague, 282 U.S. 716, 730 (1931) ( “The choice . . . of the mode of ratification. . .lies in the sole discretion of Congress.” ).
3: U.S. Const. art. V.
4: Id.
5: See Intro.3.1 Ratification of Amendments to the Constitution Generally. The Eighteenth Amendment prohibited “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes.” U.S. Const. amend. XVIII, repealed by id. amend. XXI.