Constitution Amendment

Amending to the United States Constitution serves to be politically arduous within the contemporary generation today, as the stakes are low regarding which amendment will succeed through the amendment process. The Constitution ratified in the year 1788 serves to be a creed laid out by the Founding Fathers of America in the hope of establishing a country based on independent grounds capable of serving political and social values. The framers established the constitution within the grounds of law and order as it is composed of 27 amendments that mark political and social rights held by every individual. For example, the first ten amendments serve to be specific rights ratified in order to protect individual liberties (Sidlow and Henschen 42-43).

Former Court Justice John Paul Stevens who served on the Supreme Court argues regarding amending the Constitution to promote democracy and rights (Posner, Slate.com). However, enacting new amendments to the Constitution is highly impossible today due to the rules established under Article V. Article V calls for an amendment to be proposed by two-thirds majority vote in the Senate and in the House or through a convention called in by the Congress after a request from the two-thirds votes by the states (Posner, Slate.com). This serves to be the first part of the amendment process if an amendment succeeds in the first stage it moves on to the second stage. Which requires three-quarters of votes from the 50 states in order to be enacted as an official amendment (Posner, Slate.com). The framers decided on the strict enforcement of Article V, as they believed in the ideology of stability, which would allow the government to function properly. Therefore, Sanford Levinson, a Constitution Scholar of the University of Texas refers to Article V as an “iron cage” which locks in any reforms needed to the Constitution regarding important political and social issues (Black, MinnPost.com). Notably, one significant example regarding the difficulty of amending to the constitution serves to be the Equal Rights Amendment, which failed due to the requirements addressed

Considering the political issues today same-sex marriage controversy serves to be significant as it has not been able to reach its height at the national level. As only 36 states out of 50 legally approve of same-sex marriage (Fausset and Blinder, The NewYork Times.com). Amending the Constitution for same-sex marriage serves to be a huge controversy and a difficult process due to many opinions present within the political and social circuit. Another reason many citizens do not support the idea of same-sex marriage is due to traditional social beliefs and morals. For example, many Americans oppose the idea of same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Also, due to conservative beliefs many citizens have called for constitutional amendments considering marital union only between a man and a woman as appropriate (Fausset and Blinder, The NewYork Times.com). Just as Brian S. Brown, the president of the National Organization of Marriage stated the following in a New York Times Article “The millions of people who voted that marriage is a union of a man and a woman are not simply going to throw their beliefs away. This fight will continue on regardless of which way the Supreme Court rules” (Fausset and Blinder, The NewYork Times.com). Brown implies the notion of strong beliefs and values serving as chains holding back the proposal of an amendment to the