Contemporary Questions Surrounding the Constitutional Amending Process

This study examines contemporary questions surrounding the process by which the U.S. Constitution can be amended. Beginning with a description of the mechanism and history of the constitutional amending process in America, the work considers five major questions surrounding the amending process. The question of justiciability: whether the courts should have authority to settle amending issues or whether they are political questions beyond the court's purview. The question of standards: what standards of review should be used. The question of safety: the safety of invoking the constitutional convention mechanism. The question of exclusivity: whether there are legal means of changing the Constitution short of Article V. And the question of limitations: whether there are any unstated constitutional limits on the amending process.