Ratify Amendment

• 'One other way of amendment is also not mentioned in the Constitution, and, because it has never been used, is lost on many students of the Constitution. Framer James Wilson, however, endorsed popular amendment, and the topic is examined at some length in Akhil Reed Amar's book, The Constitution: A Biography.'
• 'The notion of popular amendment comes from the conceptual framework of the Constitution. Its power derives from the people; it was adopted by the people; it functions at the behest of and for the benefit of the people. Given all this, if the people, as a whole, somehow demanded a change to the Constitution, should not the people be allowed to make such a change? As Wilson noted in 1787, "... the people may change the constitutions whenever and however they please. This is a right of which no positive institution can ever deprive them." '
• The referendum would pass the Amendment if a simple majority those voting on the Amendment voted for the Amendment in each of 38 states. A second method mentioned in The Constitution: A Biography where a simple majority of all those voting on the Amendment would pass it:
  • "Yet if the citizenry's national popular-sovereignty right is indeed inalienable, perhaps it remains possible for this right to be exhumed and exercised by some future generation, in a world where a majority of Americans actually finds the idea of amendment outside Article V plausible, principled, and necessary." (p 299)
• The purpose of this website is:
  • To gain legal support for ratification directly by the people
  • To serve as a focus to discuss and write the Amendment and
  • To assist state groups to place a referendum on the ballot in each state.