Bush Administration Has Seen Two Serious Attempts to Make Changes
NEW YORK, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- In January, President George W. Bush
said he would support a constitutional amendment that would define a marriage
as a union between one man and one woman, essentially banning same-sex
marriages. Then, on Flag Day, a Texas senator called for an amendment to
protect the flag of the United States from burning or other acts of
desecration.
As Americans prepare to decide who will occupy the White House for the
next four years, Congress is preparing for what could be a record year for
movements to amend the Constitution. Despite the public plea for change,
amending the Constitution is not as easy as simply calling for a vote. Thus,
to help the public better understand the process, LexisNexis, a leading
provider of news, business and legal information, has launched a public
website dedicated to explaining how the Constitution can be amended.
The site is at http://www.lexisnexis.com/constitution
A sampling of some of the information contained on the site:
- An amendment to the Constitution is an improvement, a correction or a
revision to the original content approved in 1788. To date, 27
Amendments have been approved, six have been disapproved and thousands
have been discussed.
- The first 10 amendments are called the Bill of Rights. All were
ratified as a group on the same day. The remaining 17 were ratified
individually. The 27th Amendment was actually proposed with the
original Bill of Rights but was not ratified until 1992. One other
amendment proposed with the original Bill of Rights was not approved.
- The 27th Amendment took 202 years, 7 months, 12 days. Twelve amendments
were proposed to Congress on September 25, 1789. Numbers 3-12 were
approved, and became the first 10 amendments. Number 1, related to
congressional apportionment, has since become irrelevant. Number 2 was
initially ratified by six states, but fell short of the necessary
approval by three fourths of the states.
- "Proposed" amendments that never made it out of committee or were never
given much credence include: To allow for any person who has been a
citizen of the United States for 20 years or more to be eligible for
the Presidency. (107th Congress, 2001-2002); To declare that life
begins at conception and that the 5th and 14th amendments apply to
unborn children (106th Congress, 1999-2000); To remove automatic
citizenship of children born in the U.S. to non-resident parents (103rd
Congress, 1993-1994); To prohibit abortion (103rd Congress, 1993-1994);
To disallow the desecration of the U.S. flag (102nd Congress, 1991-
1992); To prohibit involuntary bussing of students (102nd Congress,
1991- 1992).
About LexisNexis
LexisNexis(R) ( http://www.lexisnexis.com ) is a leader in comprehensive
and authoritative legal, news and business information and tailored
applications. A member of Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE: ENL) (NYSE: RUK)
( http://www.reedelsevier.com ), the company does business in 100 countries
with 13,000 employees worldwide. In addition to its flagship Web-based
Lexis(R) and Nexis(R) research services, the company includes some of the
world's most respected legal publishers such as Martindale-Hubbell, Matthew
Bender, Butterworths, JurisClasseur, Abeledo-Perrot and Orac.
For complete election coverage,
visit http://www.lexisnexis.com/campaign2004/
SOURCE LexisNexis
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Related links:
http://www.lexis-nexis.com
http://www.reedelsevier.com
http://www.lexisnexis.com/constitution
http://www.lexisnexis.com/campaign2004
CONTACT:
Randy Dunham of LexisNexis, +1-937-865-8836,
or mrandy.dunham@lexisnexis.com
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