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Explore the formal and informal methods used to amend the United States Constitution, including the process of proposing and ratifying amendments, judicial interpretation, and political changes. Understand why informal methods are more commonly employed.
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Amending the Constitution By: Stephanie Aguilar, Elvira Alonso, Daniel Hernandez, Moris Ventura
The United States Constitution has endured for more than two centuries as the framework of government. However, the meaning of the Constitution has been changed by both formal and informal methods.
Identify two formal methods for adding amendments to the Constitution • One formal method is that Congress can propose an amendment in each house if it gets a ⅔ vote or the National Convention can propose an amendment if it is requested by ⅔ of the states. • Another formal amendment is that the State Legislatures can ratify an amendment if they get a vote of ¾ of the states or that the State Conventions can ratify an amendment by a vote of ¾ of the states. The president doesn’t have anything to do with amending the Constitution.
b) Describe two informal methods that have been used to change the meaning of the Constitution. Provide one specific example for each informal method you described. • Judicial Interpretation: The judiciary is responsible for interpreting the Constitution which is the supreme law of the land. Therefore, through the Judicial Review, the judiciary established that they are the only branch, as authorized by the Constitution, that can deem whether an act of the other two branches is constitutional or what a certain clause means in the Constitution. An example of this is when they interpreted the commerce clause broadly in the case of Gibbons v Ogden to include all “commercial activity.” • Political Changes: When the Constitution was written our founding fathers could not predict what new innovations would take a hold in our government one of them being political parties. Congress is dominated by a bipartisan political party system which includes the Democrats and Republicans.
c) Explain why informal methods are used more often than the formal amendment process. • Informal methods are used more often than the formal amendment process because being able to interpret the Constitution your own way gives you a lot of power • Marbury V. Madison • Supreme Court decided that they had the the power to interpret the Constitution
