The most obscure Constitutional Amendment

While most of us can truthfully say that we know our rights, very few of us can say that we know the rest of the document they come from. We all know the heavy hitters of Constitutional Amendment lineup: freedom of speech, right to remain silent, speedy and public trial, etc. But there’s more to this document than the Bill of Rights- 17 amendments more, to be exact. I’d like to bring attention to the most obscure of them all: Amendment XXIII.

According to the constitution center website, the 23rd amendment gets very little attention outside of the small area it influences and is the least viewed of the 35 sections on their website. Why? Probably because of its topic: this amendment allows the District of Colombia to participate in the electing of our President just like any other state, by the vote of the people and the vote of the electoral college. The only difference is that since Washington, D.C., is a federal district and not a state, it it only allowed 3 electoral votes.

Since this amendment affects less than 0.25% of our country’s population, it’s easy to see why it would be the most obscure of the group. Unless the District of Columbia plans on becoming a state anytime soon, I think that the 23rd Amendment of our Constitution will continue to hold the title of “Most Obscure Amendment.”

The failed amendment graveyard: how many missed the cut?

Our Constitution currently has of 27 amendments: the first 10, which make up the Bill of Rights, and the 17 others ratified since 1791. The most recent of these was the 27th Amendment, added to the Constitution in 1992, which regulates congressional pay rates. Since then, not a single amendment has made the cut, but that’s not for a lack of trying. In fact, 11,372 changes to the U.S. Constitution have been proposed over the past 230-ish years, the last of which was ratified over 25 years ago.

The question is: why do so few of these changes make it into the Constitution? After being officially proposed, these suggested changes have to clear several hurdles. They have to get a majority approval from multiple sources and clear those tests. Even if the majority of the population approves of and supports the amendment, it can still be shut down by government officials. For this and other reasons, the success rate of Constitutional Amendments is exceptionally low. Over 11,000 proposals have bitten the dust, but that won’t stop anyone from trying.