Amendments of the U.S. Constitution Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Adopted in June 1788, the United States Constitution consists of seven articles. The three branches of the federal government are outlined by the first three articles. Which of the remaining four articles governs how the Constitution may be amended?

Answer: Article V

Out of the four remaining articles of the Constitution, the procedures for constitutional amendment is outlined by Article V, providing that:

"The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress."

In the 1798 case Hollingsworth v. Virginia, the Supreme Court decided that the president is not involved in the amendment process, since Article V doesn't mention the president in any way. Therefore constitutional amendments are the only exception to the president's veto power.

2. Only two restrictions are placed on what can be amended. The first is a restriction on abolishing the slave trade before the year 1808. What is the second restriction?

Answer: The number of senators a state has to represent it in the Senate requires the consent of the state concerned

Article V further provides that: "Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate."

The restriction is relevantly straightforward; amendments affecting the number of senators a state has to represent it in the Senate requires the consent of the state concerned, in addition to the usual three-fourths majority required for ratification.

3. There are two methods in which an amendment may be ratified by the states. This can be achieved through either the state legislatures or state conventions held for that purpose. Prior to the end of the twentieth century, the latter method was employed only once. Which amendment was the first to be ratified by state conventions?

Answer: Twenty-First

The Twenty-First Amendment, ratified in December 1933, was the first amendment to employ the second method of ratification provided by Article V. The reason for this was simple: to repeal the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition).

Beginning in January 1920, Prohibition proved to be a massive flop as it gave way to organized crime and was loosely enforced. With the Great Depression in full swing during the early 1930s, calls for its repeal became much more widespread. In February 1933, Congress proposes an amendment to repeal the Eighteenth, providing that state conventions be held to ratify the amendment. Ratified in December 1933, after a period of nearly fourteen years, Prohibition came to an end.

4. One of the fundamental principles of the Constitution is the system of checks and balances: the idea that each branch should check and balance the other to prevent any potential abuse of power. One example of this is that Congress can overturn Supreme Court decisions by amending the Constitution. Prior to the end of the twentieth century, how many amendments were proposed with the intention of overturning a Supreme Court decision?

Answer: Four

Prior to the end of the twentieth century, only four amendments were proposed with the intention of overturning a Supreme Court decision. These are the Eleventh (overturning Chisholm v. Georgia), the Fourteenth (overturning Dred Scott v. Sandford), the Sixteenth (overturning Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co.) and the Twenty-Sixth Amendments (overturning Oregon v. Mitchell).

Other examples of checks and balances include the president's veto power, the Senate's power to "advice and consent" presidential appointments and treaties, and the Supreme Court's power of judicial review.

5. The Twelfth Amendment revised procedures for how the president is elected. It stipulates that the vice president is elected along with the president on a joint ticket, thereby introducing the concept of a running mate that we are familiar with today. The Twelfth Amendment first applied in which election?

Answer: 1804

When the Constitution was adopted in June 1788, the concept of a running mate did not exist as presidential electors in the Electoral College selected their first and second favoured presidential candidates as president and vice president, respectively.

The 1796 election saw Federalist John Adams become the nation's second president with three more votes than his Democratic-Republican Vice President Thomas Jefferson. The 1800 election saw the House of Representatives elect Jefferson as the third president after Jefferson tied with Aaron Burr.

In December 1803, Congress proposes the Twelfth Amendment to revise electoral procedures. Ratified in June 1804, the amendment first applied in that year's election. Jefferson was elected to a second term as president but dropped Burr in favour of George Clinton instead. Charles Cotesworth was the Federalist candidate for president and Rufus King ran for vice president on the same ticket.

6. Section I of the Twentieth Amendment provides that the president and vice president are to be inaugurated on the twentieth of January and congressional terms begin on the third of January. However, the need for the amendment was necessary; the swearing-in ceremonies of the president and Congress were held on the fourth of March following elections of the previous November. Who was the first president to be inaugurated on the twentieth of January?

Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt

In American politics, the lame duck period is the period before newly-elected officials have yet to take office following an election. The Twentieth Amendment was proposed in response to the problematic four month lame duck period that had existed in the United States before the amendment's proposal in March 1932.

Throughout the century and a half between the Constitution's adoption in June 1788 and the amendment's proposal in March 1932, means of travel and communication had vastly improved over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with developments such as the telephone, the automobile and radio. Ratified in January 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to be inaugurated under the provisions of the amendment after being elected to a second term in November 1936.

Calvin Coolidge became president in August 1923 following the death of President Warren G. Harding and then being elected to a term of his own in November 1924. Herbert Hoover then succeeded Coolidge in March 1929 following the 1928 election and Harry S. Truman succeeded Roosevelt in April 1945 following the latter's death. Like Coolidge, Truman was elected to a full term in November 1948.

7. Ratified in February 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment limits how many times a president may be elected. When the provisions of the amendment became effective in January 1953, what was the maximum amount of years a president could serve?

Answer: Ten

The Twenty-Second Amendment provides that: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once."

The amendment is self-explanatory: A president is limited to two elected terms but if for example, the president dies or resigns, a successor (usually the vice president) can only be elected once as president if succeeding less than two years into the term. Between the ratification of the amendment in February 1951 and the 2000 election, this only occurred twice:

1. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was eligible for two terms of his own due to the Kennedy assassination in November 1963.

2. Vice President Gerald R. Ford was eligible for only one full term since Richard M. Nixon resigned less than two years into his second term in August 1974.

8. The Twenty-Third Amendment is the second amendment to concern the Electoral College, after the Twelfth Amendment. It grants the participation of the District of Columbia in presidential elections. The Twenty-Third Amendment first applied in which election?

Answer: 1964

Proposed in June 1960, the Twenty-Third Amendment provided that: "The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State."

The amendment is relevantly straightforward; the District of Columbia is granted participation in the Electoral College but its provisions prevent the district from having a greater number of electors than that of the least populous state. The 1964 election was the first election that residents of the district could vote for presidential electors, after the amendment was ratified in March 1961.

9. Ratified in February 1967, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment revises presidential succession. Which provision empowers the president to appoint a new vice president if a vacancy exists in that office?

Answer: Section II

In July 1965, Congress proposes the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the states for ratification. The amendment was proposed to revise constitutional rules for the succession of the Presidency.

In April 1812, George Clinton became the first vice president to die in office. Clinton was followed by fifteen other vice presidents who either died, resigned or succeeded to the Presidency following the death of the president. However, in each instance, the office remained vacant until the next election due to a lack of a provision concerning vice presidential vacancies.

Ratified in February 1967, such a provision was provided by Section II of the amendment, providing that: "Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress."

10. Ratified in May 1992, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment is an oddity among the amendments due to the length of time it took to be ratified by the states. In what year was the amendment proposed?

Answer: 1789

Proposing twelve amendments in September 1789, what became the Twenty-Seventh Amendment in May 1992 was proposed as the Second Amendment. With the exception of eight states, six within five years of its proposal, the amendment remained largely forgotten.

However, the amendment was finally ratified after two centuries only as a result of a decade-long letter campaign embarked upon by university student Gregory Watson, after learning of the proposal's existence while researching a paper in the early 1980s.

Source: Author Cuish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor trident before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Since its adoption in June 1788, the United States Constitution has been amended several times. This quiz will test you on constitutional amendments following the Bill of Rights.

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>