Article V grants the United States the power to modify the constitution and describes the fundamental steps for the amendments. The following procedures must be followed to modify the constitution in the United States of America: Congress might present the suggested changes to the states for their consideration if a two-thirds majority in both chambers adopts the amendment language. Congress must convene a session to propose modifications in response to a proposal by the legislative bodies of two-thirds or about 34 to 50 states (Mezey, 2020). After three-fourths or 38 out of 50 states have affirmed the suggested change, it becomes a component of the constitution. The Office of the Federal Register creates an official declaration for the Archivist to verify that the adjustment is legal and has been incorporated into the charter of rights and freedoms once it confirms that it has obtained the necessary quantity of validated approval records.
Methods Available to Change Constitution in My State
There are three main ways to alter or revise constitutions in the United States. The techniques include a legislative bid, a mass campaign, and a constitutional convention. Moreover, the Constitutional review committee is tasked with considering and recommending changes to laws after 20 years. The committee met in 1977 and 1997; the next planned conference was in 2037 (Heikkila & Cairney, 2018). Despite the mechanism used, every suggested constitution alteration must receive 60 percent of the votes cast in a poll that is held concurrently with the following general election.
The adaptability of the Patterns of Constitutional Modifications
Over time, the states have accumulated a lot of historical experience in adapting to changes in their system of constitutional amendments. I remember in 2004 when people from Georgia, Michigan, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Utah approved constitutional amendments outlawing same-sex unions in the respective states. Furthermore, states decided to include additional modifications to the state constitutions over the past ten years to permit marijuana and medical-assisted murder. About 70% of the people accepted the alteration of the constitution to same-sex marriage and were willing to adopt it (Born & Rutledge, 2022). People were also pleased with the legalization of marijuana for medical use. It means that the states have begun to distinguish more between the benefits and harms of some changes.
References
Born, G. B., & Rutledge, P. B. (2022). International civil litigation in United States courts. Aspen Publishing. Web.
Heikkila, T., & Cairney, P. (2018). Comparison of theories of the policy process. In Theories of the policy process (pp. 301-327). Routledge. Web.
Mezey, M. L. (2020). Introduction: Vulnerable Legislatures in the Era of Strong Executives. In Legislative Decline in the 21st Century (pp. 1-16). Routledge. Web.