Eleanor Finch
The process of amending the U.S. Constitution is a challenging one, and as a result, many proposed amendments have failed to be ratified. Since the Bill of Rights and the first 10 amendments were passed in 1791, only 17 amendments have been added to the Constitution. Here's a look at some of the notable constitutional amendments that have not been ratified and the reasons behind their failure.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Amendments Not Ratified | 6 |
| First Amendment Not Ratified | Child-Labor Amendment |
| Second Amendment Not Ratified | Equal Rights Amendment |
| Third Amendment Not Ratified | Representation in Congress for the District of Columbia |
| Other Notable Amendments Not Ratified | Corwin Amendment, Christian Amendment, Anti-Miscegenation Amendment, Amendment to Outlaw Millionaires |
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What You'll Learn
Child labour amendment
The Child Labor Amendment (CLA) is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would specifically authorize Congress to regulate "labor of persons under eighteen years of age". The amendment was first proposed in 1922 and approved by both houses on 2 June 1924, during the 68th Congress. The proposal came in response to Supreme Court rulings in 1918 and 1922 that federal laws regulating and taxing goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 and 16 were unconstitutional.
The Child Labor Amendment was offered by Ohio Republican Congressman Israel Moore Foster in the form of House Joint Resolution No. 184. The resolution was adopted by the United States House of Representatives on April 26, 1924, with a vote of 297 yeas, 69 nays, 2 absent, and 64 not voting. The Senate passed it on June 2, 1924, by a vote of 61-23.
Despite wide popular support, the amendment was only ratified by 28 of the required 36 states by 1937. Interest in the amendment waned following the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which implemented federal regulation of child labor with the Supreme Court's approval in 1941. The amendment was itself the subject of a 1939 Supreme Court decision, Coleman v. Miller, which declared that the question of the reasonableness of the time within which a sufficient number of states must act is a political question to be determined by Congress.
The Child Labor Amendment is still pending, and ratification by 10 more states (38 states in total) is required to add the amendment to the Constitution. In 2024, the Connecticut House of Representatives voted to ratify the CLA, and the Hawaii Senate voted to ratify the CLA in 2021 and 2022 with bipartisan support but stalled in the Hawaii House of Representatives.
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Equal Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would explicitly prohibit gender discrimination. The amendment was first introduced in Congress in December 1923 by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. With the rise of the women's movement in the United States during the 1960s, the ERA gained increasing support. It was reintroduced by Representative Martha Griffiths in 1971 and approved by the U.S. House of Representatives that year and by the U.S. Senate in 1972, thus submitting the ERA to the state legislatures for ratification.
In the early history of the Equal Rights Amendment, middle-class women were largely supportive, while those speaking for the working class were often opposed, arguing that women should hold more domestic responsibility than men and that employed women needed special protections regarding working conditions and employment hours. Proponents of the ERA asserted that it would end legal distinctions between men and women in matters including divorce, property, and employment. Opponents argued that it would remove protections from women and make them eligible for the military draft.
The ERA was never ratified by the required three-fourths of states and formally died on June 30, 1982, after a disputed congressional extension of the original seven-year ratification deadline. Despite this, the fight for the ERA continues, with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley introducing a joint resolution in 2025 to establish the ratification of the ERA, notwithstanding the previous time limit.
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Corwin Amendment
The Corwin Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that has never been adopted. However, due to the absence of a ratification deadline, it could theoretically still be adopted by state legislatures. The Corwin Amendment was first proposed by Ohio Representative Thomas Corwin on February 28, 1861, and was intended to prevent the American Civil War and preserve the Union.
The amendment sought to shield slavery within the states from the federal constitutional amendment process and from abolition or interference by Congress. Although the Corwin Amendment does not explicitly mention "slavery", it was designed to protect slavery from federal power. The amendment stated:
> No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.
The Corwin Amendment was approved by Congress on March 2, 1861, just two days before Abraham Lincoln became President. It was passed by the House of Representatives with a vote of 133 to 65, barely above the two-thirds threshold. The Senate also approved the amendment with the exact two-thirds majority needed—24 to 12.
Despite its passage in Congress, the Corwin Amendment was not ratified by the requisite number of state legislatures. Only Ohio and Maryland ratified the amendment, while eleven southern states seceded from the Union before it could be ratified. The Corwin Amendment ultimately failed to achieve its goal of preventing civil war and preserving the Union, and it fell out of favor during the Civil War.
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Amendment to regulate marriage and divorce
The process of amending the US Constitution is a challenging one, and only 27 amendments have been ratified by the required three-fourths of states since the Bill of Rights and the first 10 amendments were passed in 1791.
One of the proposed amendments that failed to be ratified was an amendment to regulate marriage and divorce. This proposal was introduced in Congress annually for about 60 years, starting in the 1880s. The amendment would have given Congress the power to establish and enforce uniform laws regarding marriage and divorce across the United States. However, it is important to note that each state would still have the right to exclude any causes for absolute divorce for its citizens.
The push for this amendment was driven by a desire to standardize marriage and divorce laws across the nation. During this time, President Theodore Roosevelt lobbied for Congress to take control over divorces without passing an amendment. Despite these efforts, the proposal never gained enough support to be ratified.
It is worth noting that the Supreme Court has played a significant role in interpreting the Constitution and shaping marriage and divorce laws. For example, in the case of Loving v. Virginia in 1967, the Supreme Court struck down state marriage laws that barred interracial marriages, recognizing marriage as a "basic civil right." More recently, in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, the Supreme Court invalidated all amendments banning same-sex marriage, affirming the right of same-sex couples to marry.
While the amendment to regulate marriage and divorce did not succeed, the ongoing dialogue and legal developments surrounding marriage and divorce laws in the United States highlight the dynamic nature of constitutional interpretation and the ongoing pursuit of equality under the law.
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Anti-miscegenation amendment
The United States Constitution is a living document that has been amended 27 times as of 1992. In addition to these amendments, six other amendments have been submitted to the states but have not been ratified by them. One of these failed amendments is the Anti-miscegenation Amendment, proposed by Representative Seaborn Roddenbery, a Southern Democrat from Georgia, in 1912. The amendment aimed to forbid interracial marriages nationwide.
The proposal was spurred by the marriage of black boxer Jack Johnson to a white woman, Lucille Cameron, which garnered much publicity and stirred racial tensions. At the time, many U.S. states had already enacted anti-miscegenation laws, some of which predated the establishment of the United States and went back to the 17th or 18th century. These laws prohibited interracial marriage and, in some states, interracial sexual relations.
The constitutionality of these laws was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1883 case of Pace v. Alabama, where the Court ruled that the Alabama anti-miscegenation statute did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court's interpretation was that both races were treated equally in the eyes of the law because the punishment for violating the statute applied equally to both whites and black people.
However, in 1948, a California state court ruled that the state's anti-miscegenation laws violated the Fourteenth Amendment, marking the first time since Reconstruction that such laws were deemed unconstitutional at the state level. This decision set a precedent for other states, and by 1967, 14 states had followed suit in repealing their anti-miscegenation laws. That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that anti-miscegenation laws were indeed unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment, thereby striking down the remaining laws in 16 states that still enforced them.
The proposed Anti-miscegenation Amendment, which sought to enshrine these discriminatory laws in the U.S. Constitution, was ultimately unsuccessful and stood in stark contrast to the principles of equality and freedom enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment.
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Frequently asked questions
To become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be proposed by two-thirds of the House and Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures.
Six amendments have been submitted to the states but have not been ratified by them.
The first is the proposed child-labor amendment, which was submitted to the states in 1924. The second is the Equal Rights Amendment, which failed ratification in 1982. The third is the amendment relating to representation in Congress for the District of Columbia, which failed in 1985.
Yes, there have been several unusual or notable proposed amendments that did not pass, including the Corwin Amendment, which guaranteed the right of states to legalise slavery, the Christian Amendment, which would have added an acknowledgment of the Christian God, and an amendment proposed by Representative Wesley Lloyd to outlaw millionaires.
The process of amending the Constitution is deliberately challenging, and it does not happen often. For an amendment to pass, it must be proposed by two-thirds of the House and Senate and then ratified by three-fourths of the states. This ensures that there is broad support for any changes to the Constitution.
