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Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020

Historically, has an amendment to the Constitution ever been ratified in a few months?

Allegra Taylor, Gigafact
yes

The 26th Amendment to the Constitution, lowering the voting age to 18, was ratified in a record 100 days in 1971. Six other amendments have been ratified in less than one year, quickly winning first two-thirds support from Congress and then the required confirmation from three-quarters of the states.

Significant public support motivated the speedy ratification of several of these amendments. In the case of the 26th, Vietnam War activists argued that if 18-year-old Americans were old enough to serve in the military, then they were old enough to vote. Ratification of the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition, took nine months.

The Constitution imposes no time limit for ratification by the states, but Congress may attach conditions when it proposes an amendment. The 27th Amendment, proposed in 1789 to govern Congressional pay, was finally ratified in 1992.

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