The OFR adds legislative history notes to the joint resolution and publishes it in slip law format. The OFR also assembles an information package for the States which includes formal "red-line" copies of the joint resolution, copies of the joint resolution in slip law format, and the statutory procedure for ratification under 1 U.
The Archivist submits the proposed amendment to the States for their consideration by sending a letter of notification to each Governor along with the informational material prepared by the OFR. The Governors then formally submit the amendment to their State legislatures or the state calls for a convention, depending on what Congress has specified. In the past, some State legislatures have not waited to receive official notice before taking action on a proposed amendment.
When a State ratifies a proposed amendment, it sends the Archivist an original or certified copy of the State action, which is immediately conveyed to the Director of the Federal Register. Wilkey, called a few years ago for a new convention. But Richard C. Leone, president of the New York-based Twentieth Century Fund, a nonpartisan research group, says recent efforts to amend the Constitution go too far.
His organization hopes to balance the argument by publishing The New Federalist Papers, taking the name from the original Federalist Papers which were written to promote ratification of the Constitution. Polsby, the Northwestern law professor, said the number of proposed amendments is not uncommon. It is up to the states to approve a new amendment, with three-quarters of the states voting to ratifying it.
The one instance of an amendment appeal, the 21 st Amendment , shows how this unusual process works. By the early s, Prohibition had become unpopular and Congress passed the 21 st Amendment, with its repeal provision, in February just before Franklin Roosevelt became President.
The amendment proposed for ratification included language never used before but permitted under Article V: state conventions and not state legislatures would be called for ratification votes, out of fear the temperance lobby would influence state lawmakers. When Utah became the 36 th state to approve the amendment in December , the ratified 21 st Amendment not only repealed the broad prohibition on alcohol, it also added language to the Constitution that states had the ability to define alcohol laws within their borders.
Lindsey Graham announced that he would introduce legislation with the same aim. But the president cannot repeal part of the Constitution by executive order. And Congress cannot repeal it by simply passing a new bill. Amending the Constitution would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, and also ratification by three-quarters of the states.
The effort to erase the citizenship guarantee will never clear those hurdles — for very good reasons. Birthright citizenship is one of the bedrocks of this country. More than years ago, the 14th Amendment guaranteed to all those born within the United States citizenship, without regard to parentage, skin color, or ethnicity.
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