perfidy

This is something that has always fascinated me. Constitutional Amendments. There's the constitution over their, writ in stone. It’s the law we live by. Yet, by jumping through some (admittedly rather high up in the air) hoops, we can change that constitution, and rewrite the operating code for our nation. There have been 33 amendments passed by Congress and sent to the states. Twenty-seven of those have been adopted. (This process has actually happened only seventeen times, though. The first through tenth, twenty-seventh, and one of the pending amendments were all submitted at once. You could even argue that the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth were so close together that they were in effect one process, like the Bill of Rights.)

Here's what happened to the six that didn't make it in (yet).

There are four pending amendments, which, having been proposed by the required majorities in both houses of Congress were submitted to the states. Unlike more recent amendments, none of these included expiration dates so theoretically they could be adopted at any point provided enough state legislatures voted yea. They are:

• Article I of the twelve initially proposed amendments in 1789 (1st Congress), ten of which became the Bill of Rights in 1791, and one of which became Amendment XXVII more than 200 years later in 1992. The unratified Article I would have regulated the size of the United States House of Representatives and is still technically pending before, and subject to, ratification by the state legislatures. It became moot, however when the population of the United States exceeded ten million people, and an additional 26 states would need to approve it.
• The Titles of Nobility amendment proposed in 1810 (the second session of the 11th Congress) came extremely close to being ratified by the legislatures of the requisite number of states. Its provisions would have stripped the citizenship of any American citizen who accepted a title of nobility from a foreign nation. It remains pending before, and subject to, ratification by the state legislatures. Like Amendment I, it would require another 26 state approvals to take effect.
• The Corwin amendment, proposed in 1861, sought to prevent future amendments that would have permitted Congress to interfere with the practice of slavery:
  

  "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."

  Interestingly, this measure passed the Congress through, in part, the lobbying of President Elect Lincoln, and despite the fact that seven states had already seceded from the Union and were no longer represented in Congress at all. From the Wikipedia:

  Today, with 50 states in the Union, ratification by the legislatures of 38 states is required for a proposed amendment to find its way into the Constitution—and with specific regard to the Corwin Amendment, 36 more in addition to those two whose previous ratifications remain valid. Because the amendment uses the term "domestic institutions," and because that term is quite broad, a belated ratification of the Corwin Amendment in modern times might not pertain to slavery at all.

• A Child labor amendment proposed in 1924 would grant Congress exclusive authority to legislate on the subject of child labor and to force state law to yield to federal law. This is rather a moot point since the Feds already have that power thanks to a broad reading of the Commerce Clause. This proposed amendment led to the later use of deadlines amendment language when several states that had earlier balked at approving the amendment later reconsidered. The case Coleman v. Miller established that unless amendments have a deadline, they come into effect whenever ¾ of the states approve it. Even if, as in the case of the 27th amendment, that is more than two centuries after it was proposed.

Beyond the those still considered "active," only two others have been passed by the Congress and submitted to the states. These two had expiration dates that have passed without gaining the required number of state approvals. One was the arguably redundant Equal Rights Amendment, the other the DC voting rights amendment that would have granted DC representation in the US Congress as if it were a state. (Interestingly, it would also be counted as a state for purposes of Article V, amending the constitution, even though DC has no legislature.)

But beyond that, there is the vast field of amendments that have been suggested but never passed by Congress, or sometimes never even got out of committee. And, sometimes not even into committee. Over ten thousand have been introduced in Congress, and sometimes hundreds in a given session. Some are proposed repeatedly, year after year, like the Flag Burning Amendment. (Which sounds as though it's for flag burning when you say it that way.)

Some of the recent, or at least more interesting amendment proposals include:

• A Continuity of Government Amendment that would provide for replacing large numbers of Congressmen or other officials in the event of terrorist attack or natural disaster wiping out Congress. You know, like in Mars Attacks.
• In 2004, Zell Miller proposed repealing the 17th Amendment that provided for direct election of Senators.
• Someone's always proposing repealing the 22nd, for Presidential Term Limits.
• There's the Schwarzenegger Amendment, which would allow foreign born citizens to become President.
• Perennial favorites also include Marriage Amendments, Anti-Flag Desecration Amendments, and School Prayer Amendment.
• A Balanced Budget Amendment might be a good idea. Of course, they'd have to include a lot of text defining what a budget is.
• A Human Life amendment would give fetuses the protection of the fifth and fourteenth amendments.
• The Bricker Amendment would limit the powers of treaties with foreign powers to affect US law.
• Victim's rights amendments have also been proposed to limit the liberal-squishiness of the justice system.

But that's not all. Here's a buttload more amendment proposals from usconstitution.net:

• To specifically permit prayer at school meetings and ceremonies
• To allow non-natural born citizens to become President if they have been a citizen for 20 years
• To specifically allow Congress to regulate the amount of personal funds a candidate to public office can expend in a campaign
• To ensure that apportionment of Representatives be set by counting only citizens
• To make the filibuster in the Senate a part of the Constitution
• To provide for continuity of government in case of a catastrophic event
• To lower the age restriction on Representatives and Senators from 30 and 25 respectively to 21
• To ensure that citizens of U.S. territories and commonwealths can vote in presidential elections
• To guarantee the right to use the word "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and the national motto
• To restrict marriage in all states to be between a man and a woman
• To remove any protection any court may find for child pornography
• To allow Congress to pass laws for emergency replenishment of its membership should more than a quarter of either house be killed
• To place Presidential nominees immediately into position, providing the Senate with 120 days to reject the nominee before the appointment is automatically permanent
• Calling for the repeal of the 8th Amendment and its replacement with wording prohibiting incarceration for minor traffic offenses
• To specify that progressive income taxes must be used
• To specify a right to "equal high quality" health care
• To limit pardons granted between October 1 and January 21 of any presidential election year
• To require a balanced budget without use of Social Security Trust Fund monies
• To allow for any person who has been a citizen of the United States for twenty years or more to be eligible for the Presidency
• To force the members of Congress and the President to forfeit their salary, on a per diem basis, for every day past the end of the fiscal year that a budget for that year remains unpassed
• To provide a new method for proposing amendments to the Constitution, where two-thirds of all state legislatures could start the process
• To allow Congress to enact campaign spending limits on federal elections
• To allow Congress to enact campaign spending limits on state elections
• To declare that life begins at conception and that the 5th and 14th amendments apply to unborn children
• To prohibit courts from instructing any state or lower government to levy or raise taxes
• To force a national referendum for any deficit spending
• To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges every 12 years
• To prohibit the early release of convicted criminals
• To establish the right to a home
• To define the legal effect of international treaties
• To clarify that the Constitution neither prohibits nor requires school prayer
• To establish judicial terms of office
• To clarify the meaning of the 2nd Amendment
• To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges every 6 years
• To force a two-thirds vote for any bill that raises taxes
• To repeal the 16th Amendment and specifically prohibit an income tax
• To provide for removal of any officer of the U.S. convicted of a felony
• To permit the States to set term limits for their Representatives and Senators
• To allow a Presidential pardon of an individual only after said individual has been tried and convicted of a crime
• To allow Congress to pass legislation to allow the Supreme Court to remove federal judges from office
• To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges every 10 years
• To provide for the recall of Representatives and Senators
• To remove automatic citizenship of children born in the U.S. to non-resident parents
• To enable or repeal laws by popular vote
• To define a process to allow amendments to the Constitution be proposed by a popular ("grass-roots") effort
• To force a three-fifths vote for any bill that raises taxes
• To prohibit retroactive taxation
• To provide for run-off Presidential elections if no one candidate receives more than 50% of the vote
• To prohibit abortion
• To bar imposition on the States of unfunded federal mandates
• To disallow the desecration of the U.S. Flag
• To allow a line-item veto in appropriations bills
• To expand the term of Representatives to four years
• To provide for direct election of the President and Vice-President (eliminating the Electoral College)
• To force a balanced budget
• To prohibit involuntary bussing of students
• To make English the official language of the United States
• To set term limits on Representatives and Senators
• To repeal the 22nd Amendment (removing Presidential term limits)
• To guarantee a right to employment opportunity for all citizens
• To grant protections to unborn children
• To provide for "moments of silence" in public schools
• To allow Congress to regulate expenditures for and contributions to political campaigns
• To provide for the rights of crime victims
• To provide for access to medical care for all citizens
• To repeal the 2nd Amendment (right to bear arms)
• To prohibit the death penalty
• To protect the environment
• To repeal the 26th Amendment (granting the vote to 18-year olds) and granting the right to vote to 16-year olds
• To provide equal rights to men and women

I also remember suggestions for amendments to establish a ten year sunset for all US laws, and to establish a general line-item veto.

And I'm sure there's plenty more out there. More information, and more links than I was willing to include here can be found at the wikipedia and at the wikipedia. Also, at the wikipedia.