4. What is an amendment?
Answer:
• A change (to the Constitution)
• An addition (to the Constitution)
Explanation:
The men who wrote the U.S. Constitution knew that their document was not perfect.
That is why they included ways to change or add laws to the Constitution in the future.
The fifth article (or section) of the Constitution says that Americans can change the Constitution in two ways.
The first way is to have another Constitutional Convention,
a big meeting where representatives from all of the states would gather and decide on the changes,
just like they did when the Constitution was written in Philadelphia in 1787.
This way, however, has never been used.
There has never been a second Constitutional Convention.
The second and more common way to change the Constitution has two steps.
First, Congress (the group of elected national representatives) passes (or approves) a special law
to change or add something to the Constitution.
This change or addition is called an amendment.
Two-thirds (or 67%) of the members of Congress has to vote in favor of (or say “yes” to approve) this amendment.
Then the amendment must be approved by three-fourths (or 75%) of the states.
Getting two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states to agree is not an easy thing to do,