A scholarly examination of the mechanisms for, history of, and
contemporary issues surrounding the constitutional amending
process. This study examines contemporary questions surrounding
the process by which the U.S. Constitution can be amended.
Beginning with a description of the mechanism and history of the
constitutional amending process in America, the work considers
five major questions surrounding the amending process. The
question of justiciability: whether the courts should have
authority to settle amending issues or whether they are
political questions beyond the court's purview. The question of
standards: what standards of review should be used. The question
of safety: the safety of invoking the constitutional convention
mechanism. The question of exclusivity: whether there are legal
means of changing the Constitution short of Article V. And the
question of limitations: whether there are any unstated
constitutional limits on the amending process.