A GENERAL-THEORY OF ARTICLE-V - THE CONSTITUTIONAL LESSONS OF THE 27TH AMENDMENT

The Twenty-seventh Amendment was proposed by the First Congress in 178 9 but not adopted until 1992, when Michigan became the thirty-eighth s tate to ratify it. The history of the Twenty-seventh Amendment poses a constitutional problem: Can a proposed amendment be ratified over a p eriod of 202 years? Professor Paulsen argues that the amendment proces s is best understood as a set of formal rules requiring ''concurrent l egislative enactment '' of a Proposed amendment by a two-thirds majori ty of Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures. This model assumes that the proposal and ratifications of a constitutional amend ment continue to have legal force over time. Paulsen concludes that th e Twenty-seventh Amendment is valid. Paulsen similarly argues that sta te applications for a constitutional convention may be cumulated over time. He maintains that applications reciting a ''purpose ''for which a state seeks a convention, but not explicitly conditioned on the conv ention being limited to consideration of a particular subject, should be considered as applications for a ''general,'' not a ''limited,'' co nvention. Paulsen concludes that Congress is currently obliged to call a constitutional convention, unlimited in the amendment proposals it may consider.