Proposed Amendments not Ratified by the States

[[Page 45]]




________________________________________________________________________


                    PROPOSED AMENDMENTS NOT RATIFIED

                              BY THE STATES

________________________________________________________________________

[[Page 47]]
________________________________________________________________________



             PROPOSED AMENDMENTS NOT RATIFIED BY THE STATES

        During the course of our history, in addition to the 27
amendments which have been ratified by the required three-fourths of the
States, six other amendments have been submitted to the States but have
not been ratified by them.
        Beginning with the proposed Eighteenth Amendment, Congress has
customarily included a provision requiring ratification within seven
years from the time of the submission to the States. The Supreme Court
in Coleman v. Miller, 307 U.S. 433 (1939), declared that the question of
the reasonableness of the time within which a sufficient number of
States must act is a political question to be determined by the
Congress.
        In 1789, at the time of the submission of the Bill of Rights,
twelve proposed amendments were submitted to the States. Of these,
Articles III-XII were ratified and became the first ten amendments to
the Constitution. Proposed Articles I and II were not ratified with
these ten, but, in 1992, Article II was proclaimed as ratified, 203
years later. The following is the text of proposed Article I:

                Article I. After the first enumeration required by the
        first article of the Constitution, there shall be one
        Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall
        amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so
        regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one
        hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for
        every forty thousand persons, until the number of
        Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the
        proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall
        not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one
        Representative for every fifty thousand persons.
                                 ______

        Thereafter, in the 2d session of the 11th Congress, the Congress
proposed the following amendment to the Constitution relating to
acceptance by citizens of the United States of titles of nobility from
any foreign government.
        The proposed amendment which was not ratified by three-fourths
of the States reads as follows:

                Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
        the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds
        of both Houses concurring), That the following section be
        submitted to the legislatures of the several states, which, when
        ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the states,
        shall be valid and binding, as a part of the constitution of the
        United States.
                If any citizen of the United States shall accept, claim,
        receive or retain any title of nobility or honour, or shall,
        without the consent of Congress, accept and retain any present,
        pension, office or emolument of any kind whatever, from any
        emperor, king, prince or foreign power, such person shall cease
        to be a citizen of the United States, and shall be incapable of
        holding any office of trust or profit under them, or either of
        them.

[[Page 48]]

        During the second session of the 36th Congress on March 2, 1861,
the following proposed amendment to the Constitution relating to slavery
was signed by the President. It is interesting to note in this
connection that this is the only proposed amendment to the Constitution
ever signed by the President. The President's signature is considered
unnecessary because of the constitutional provision that upon the
concurrence of two-thirds of both Houses of Congress the proposal shall
be submitted to the States and shall be ratified by three-fourths of the
States.

                Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
        the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
        following article be proposed to the Legislatures of the several
        States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
        which, when ratified by three-fourths of said Legislatures,
        shall be valid, to all intents and purposes, as part of the said
        Constitution, viz:

                           ``Article Thirteen

                ``No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which
        will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or
        interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions
        thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by
        the laws of said State.''
                                 ______

        In more recent times, only three proposed amendments have not
been ratified by three-fourths of the States. The first is the proposed
child-labor amendment, which was submitted to the States during the 1st
session of the 68th Congress in June 1924, as follows:

   Joint Resolution Proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the
                              United States

                Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
        the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds
        of each House concurring therein), That the following article is
        proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
        States, which when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths
        of the several States, shall be valid to all intents and
        purposes as a part of the Constitution:

                              Article------

                Section 1. The Congress shall have power to limit,
        regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of
        age.
                Section 2. The power of the several States is unimpaired
        by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be
        suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation
        enacted by the Congress.
                                 ______

        The second proposed amendment to have failed of ratification is
the equal rights amendment, which formally died on June 30, 1982, after
a disputed congressional extension of the original seven-year period for
ratification.


[[Page 49]]


                       House Joint Resolution 208

                Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United
        States relative to equal rights for men and women.
                Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
        the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds
        of each House concurring therein), That
                The following article is proposed as an amendment to the
        Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all
        intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified
        by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States
        within seven years from the date of its submission by the
        Congress:
                ``Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not
        be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
        account of sex.
                ``Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to
        enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this
        article.
                ``Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years
        after the date of ratification.''
                                 ______

        The third proposed amendment relating to representation in
Congress for the District of Columbia failed of ratification, 16 States
having ratified as of the 1985 expiration date for the ratification
period.

                       House Joint Resolution 554

                Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of
        the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds
        of each House concurring therein), That the following article is
        proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United
        States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part
        of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-
        fourths of the several States within seven years from the date
        of its submission by the Congress:

                                ``Article

                ``Section 1. For purposes of representation in the
        Congress, election of the President and Vice President, and
        article V of this Constitution, the District constituting the
        seat of government of the United States shall be treated as
        though it were a State.
                ``Sec. 2. The exercise of the rights and powers
        conferred under this article shall be by the people of the
        District constituting the seat of government, and as shall be
        provided by the Congress.
                ``Sec. 3. The twenty-third article of amendment to the
        Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
                ``Sec. 4. This article shall be inoperative, unless it
        shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
        the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within
        seven years from the date of its submission.''