The legal reason is that Article 5 of the Constitution requires amendments to be ratified by 3/4 of the states either through their legislatures of ratifying conventions as Congress may direct. The Constitution itself when it was created had to be accepted by 3/4 of the states in order to become effective. This was to ensure that the new union would consist of a large number of states to be stable enough to survive as a union of states. Anything less would leave too many states unwilling to support the union if the federal government did something contrary to some state's interests. An amendment to the Constitution is the same as re-writing the contitution, therefore it was felt that the same type of super-majority should be required. Without this requirement, it is theoretically possible to change an agreement that had to be ratified by at least 3/4 by some smaller majority.
Chat with our AI personalities
Three-fourths of the states must ratify (approve) an amendment before it becomes part of the Constitution.
The first is the states legislative body can approve the amendment. The other is the states consititutional convention delegates are authorized to approve the amendment. The full details can be found in Article Five.
Regardless of which of the two proposal routes is taken, the amendment must be ratified, or approved, by three-fourths of states. \STATES
Ratification of amendments to the Constitution is a power of the?
The Constitution can be changed by amendments. Each amendment must be approved by three-fourths of the states before it is ratified. There are currently 27 amendments to the US Constitution. The first 10 are known as the Bill of Rights.