This Constitution may be amended only in the manner provided by this Article.
The power of amendment belongs ultimately to the People of the United States, exercised through the institutions and procedures herein established.
An amendment may be proposed by any of the following methods:
No amendment shall be proposed by secret vote, concealed procedure, or unpublished text.
Any convention called under this Article shall be limited to the subject or subjects stated in the lawful applications of the States.
No convention called to propose amendments shall possess general sovereign power, authority to dissolve the constitutional order, or authority to act beyond the scope for which it was called.
Delegates to such convention shall be elected by the people in nonpartisan elections under uniform rules established by law.
The proceedings, votes, records, draft texts, amendments, and committee actions of such convention shall be public and promptly published, except for such narrow temporary secrecy as may be required by law for physical security and not for concealment of policy, debate, or voting.
No proposed amendment shall be submitted for ratification unless its full text has been publicly available for not less than one hundred eighty days.
During that period there shall be published for public inspection:
No material alteration of the text after publication shall be valid unless the amended text is republished and the review period begins anew.
Except as otherwise provided in this Article, a proposed amendment shall become valid as part of this Constitution when ratified by:
The national referendum and the State-by-State vote shall be held on the same day throughout the United States, except as law may provide for reasonable accommodation, military and overseas voting, emergencies, or unavoidable administrative necessity consistent with equal treatment.
Any amendment that would alter any of the following shall require the higher standard of ratification provided in this Section:
Any such amendment shall become valid only when ratified by:
A proposed amendment shall fail unless ratified within seven years from the date on which it is formally submitted for ratification, provided that the proposing authority may establish a shorter period by law or by the terms of proposal.
Congress may by general law provide uniform procedures for certification, recount, contest, and final proclamation of ratification consistent with this Article.
No amendment shall be proposed or ratified by fraud, coercion, foreign interference, falsification of petition signatures, suppression of public text, or denial of equal access to the ballot as secured by this Constitution and by law.
Congress and the States shall provide by law for petition verification, campaign transparency, disclosure of funding, protection against corruption, and public auditing sufficient to preserve confidence in the amendment process.
The courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to hear and decide cases arising under this Article, including disputes concerning proposal, certification, ballot access, convention limits, publication, ratification, and compliance with mandatory constitutional procedures.
The courts shall not invalidate the substance of an amendment lawfully adopted under this Article on account of disagreement with its wisdom, but they shall enforce strictly the procedural safeguards required by this Article.
No State shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate without the consent of that State.
No amendment shall abolish the equal dignity of the States within the Union except by the ratification standard of Section 6 and the consent of every State directly deprived thereby.
At intervals not exceeding twenty-five years, there shall be submitted to the people of the United States the question whether a limited constitutional review convention shall be called for the purpose of considering amendments.
Approval of such question shall not itself amend this Constitution, but shall authorize the calling of a convention only in the manner provided by this Article and by law.
Any amendment proposed by such convention shall have no force unless ratified under Section 5 or Section 6, as the case may be.
No branch, officer, court, State, military authority, or emergency power shall alter, suspend, or revise this Constitution except through the amendment procedures established by this Article.
The Constitution shall remain subject to lawful amendment, but never to unilateral alteration.
Congress shall have power to enforce and implement this Article by general law, provided that no law shall diminish the direct ratifying power of the People secured herein.
The States may enact supplementary procedures consistent with this Article and with laws of the United States, but no State shall deny, burden, or nullify the equal amendment franchise of its people.