By its very nature, the United States Constitution is a broadly-supported, nonpartisan document. Elected officials all must swear to support it. To amend it, two-thirds of the members of both the House and the Senate must vote in favor of a proposed amendment, which must then be ratified by three-fourths of the fifty States. At the present time, the legislatures of 38 States must vote to ratify a proposed amendment, in order to add it to the U. S. Constitution.

A constitutional amendment must have the broad support of the vast majority of the American people. All of these proposals were...