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Property of Neill H Alford Jr
Constitutional Law
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ART V Const US — The Amending Process
" The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this constitution, or on the application of two thirds of the several satates shall call a convention for proposing amend— ments which in either case shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this constitution when ratified by three fourths of the legislatures 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 1808 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."
Notes on Coleman v Miller: 1 W&L Law Rev 215
Court deems matter of rejection and later approval settled by historic precedent. The political department had dealt with the first question so evolved. In Dillon v. Gloss rati— fication must be within some reasonable time after proposal. Ratification is complete when the last state required to ratify ratifies and court will take judicial notice of such action.
Intrinsic limitations on Power of Constitutional Amendment: 18 Mich L Rev 213. Generally held that there are no intrinsic limitations on power of amendment but this writer says: 1. Any limitation which court would admit would have to be derived from the wording of the instrument itself. 2. An amendment which would take away from the states the powers reserved to them in the 9th and 10th Amendments would be comparable to a revolution and reform the system of government. A state is incompetent to legislate or grant away any of the powers held by it and it would legally follow that a state could not ratify such an amendment.
