Popular Amendments
Critical Analysis
Since 1999, what has been the most common subject of proposed Constitutional amendments?
Why do you think that is?
Do the types of proposals listed above tend to expand or diminish individual rights?
Which of the Amendments from the chart would you personally vote for?
How many of these proposed Amendments became actual Amendments to the U.S. Constitution?
Describe the amendment process and explain why the U.S. Constitution is so difficult to amend.
Make a claim about whether the difficulty of amending the Constitution is positive or negative and support your claim with reason, logic, facts, information.
Explain why Republicans are more likely to try to Amend the Constitution than Democrats?*
The U.S. Constitution is famously difficult to amend: It takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, then ratification by three-quarters of the states. Of the roughly 12,000 amendments proposed since the Constitutional Convention, only 33 have gone to the states for ratification, and just 27 have made it all the way into the Constitution. Explain whether the difficulty of the amendment process means that the Framers were more interested in a Pluralist system or an Elite system.
Take ten seconds and draw the process of Amending the Constitution. I know, I know: you aren’t an artist, this isn’t AP Studio Art, You’re hangry. I get it. But really, this will really, really, really help you remember the The process of Amending the Constitution - I promise. Take ten seconds and draw The Amending the Constitution. Don’t worry, I’m not going to take this up for a grade, Tweet it to all your Enemies. Just draw: It can be stick figures, blocks and shapes, or total abstraction - it doesn’t matter. Once you complete your drawing, take a second and look at your masterpiece. That’s it. Really. Now you’ve got The The Amendment process in your long term memory - right where we want it! Thank you for playing.
Learning Extension
Read the Pew report on recent attempts to Amend the Constitution. Also, tomorrow is Constitution Day!
Action Extension
Your classroom is the U.S. Congress - whoot. Take the proposed Amendment above that you think is most likely to be passed by Congress and vote on it in your class. If it passes Congress (2/3), then your class becomes the states - whoot! Vote again and see if the proposed Amendment is ratified by the states (3/5).
Visual Extension
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