Page 106 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

Article Seven

Ratification
This article provides that ratification of the Constitution requires

nine of the thirteen states (two-thirds of the states).
“Unanimously ratified the twelfth year of independence,
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September 17 1787”
Of note is that only after ratification and at printing, was this

document entitled
‘Constitution for the United States of America’

Amending the Constitution and History of Amendments
The Constitution provides for a specific, and not easy, process to

be amended. Thirty-six amendments have been proposed since
ratification: Bill of Rights (1-10) and eleven through twenty-seven

have been ratified since the original signing of the Constitution
through 1992; none have been introduced since 1972. Interestingly,

the most recent amendment (twenty-seventh) was introduced with
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the Bill of Rights and was ratified by the states May 5 1992
(Michigan). This amendment provides that Congressional raises do
not take effect until the next session of Congress (theoretically to

prevent Congress from directly giving themselves a raise). The other
amendment introduced with the Bill of Rights was an amendment to

assure a minimum number of representatives in the House. Like
three other amendments introduced independently between 1810

and 1924, this one still awaits ratification by the states, as Congress

sent them to the states for ratification without an expiration date.
The other three address prohibition of noble titles, preservation of
slavery, and Congressional regulation of child labor. The

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