Amending America.

• Author: Slade, Stephanie
• Position: National Archives exhibition - Briefly Noted - Brief article

Attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution have a success rate of just 0.2 percent, according to a new temporary exhibit at the National Archives. Over 11,000 changes have been proposed over the last 225 years, but the criteria to actually alter our founding document have only been met 27 times.

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"Amending America" showcases not just the procedural requirements as outlined in Article V but many of the modifications groups have thought worthy of writing into constitutional text. Often they've involved imposing contemporary morality on future generations, as when people tried to ban, among other things, child labor, absenteeism...