Twenty-Seventh Amendment

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

Twelve amendments were originally proposed on September 25, 1789. Ten of those were ratified as the Bill of Rights, but this proposed amendment remained unratified until 1992. No one has challenged whether the delay of over 200 years was too long a period for ratification to occur. Most modern amendments have, written into the bill, a time limit on ratification.

Seven states had ratified this amendment by 1792, and the remaining states did not ratify until Ohio voted on May 6, 1873 as a protest to the 1873 "Salary Grab Act". On March 6, 1978, Wyoming voted to ratify it as a protest to a Congressional pay raise. The proposed amendment remained largely forgotten until Gregory Watson, a University of Texas undergraduate, wrote a paper on the subject in 1982.^[1] Watson then spent years campaigning with state legislatures to secure the necessary additional states to ratify the amendment. The Congressional Apportionment Amendment (the other amendment that was left unratified from the Bill of Rights) is still pending and can be enacted if sufficient other states approve it.

References[edit]

1. ↑ Bernstein, Richard B. (1992). "The Sleeper Wakes: The History and Legacy of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment". Fordham Law Review 61 (3): 497–557. http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3017&context=flr. Retrieved June 9, 2013. 

Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

Bill of Rights:
1 - Freedom of speech, press, religion, etc.
2 - Right to bear arms
3 - Quartering of soldiers
4 - Warrants
5 - Due process
6 - Right to a speedy trial
7 - Right by trial of a jury
8 - No cruel or unusual punishments
9 - Unenumerated rights
10 - Power to the people and states

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11 - Immunity of states to foreign suits
12 - Revision of presidential election procedures
13 - Abolition of slavery
14 - Citizenship
15 - Racial suffrage
16 - Federal income tax
17 - Direct election of the United States Senate
18 - Prohibition of alcohol
19 - Women's suffrage
20 - Terms of the presidency
21 - Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment
22 - Limits the president to two terms
23 - District of Columbia Voting for President
24 - Prohibition of poll taxes
25 - Presidential disabilities
26 - Voting age lowered to 18
27 - Variance of congressional compensation