whci of the following is necessary to propose a new amendment
To propose a new amendment to the United States Constitution, several requirements must be met. The necessary steps are as follows:
1. Proposal: The first requirement is the proposal of the amendment. It can be initiated in two ways:
a. Congress: The amendment can be proposed by a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. This route is more common and has been used for the vast majority of amendments.
b. Convention: If requested by two-thirds of the state legislatures, Congress must call a constitutional convention to propose amendments. However, this method has never been used to date.
2. Ratification: After the amendment is proposed, it must be ratified by the states. There are again two possible routes for ratification:
a. State Legislatures: Three-fourths (or 38) of the state legislatures must approve the amendment within a specified time frame.
b. State Conventions: Instead of state legislatures, three-fourths of the states can approve the amendment through state conventions specially convened for this purpose.
It is important to note that while proposing an amendment requires a two-thirds majority, obtaining ratification requires three-fourths approval. This is intentionally designed to ensure broad consensus and prevent hasty changes to the Constitution.
In summary, to propose a new amendment, either two-thirds of Congress must approve it or two-thirds of state legislatures must request a constitutional convention. To ratify the proposed amendment, either three-fourths of state legislatures or three-fourths of states through conventions must approve the amendment.