What is an amendment?

An amendment is a change or addition to the Constitution. Amendments allow the Constitution to evolve over time without being rewritten. The amendment process is intentionally difficult: an amendment must be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress (or by a convention of two-thirds of state legislatures) and then ratified by three-fourths of the states. Since 1789, more than 11,000 amendments have been proposed but only 27 have been ratified. The first ten amendments, ratified in 1791, form the Bill of Rights. The most recent amendment, the 27th, was ratified in 1992. Federal laws are passed by Congress under powers granted by the Constitution but are not part of it. Treaties and executive orders are different categories of legal action.