Congressional Apportionment Amendment - Definition and Overview

The Congressional Apportionment Amendment to the United States Constitution was the first of twelve amendments proposed in 1789. The last ten of the amendments were soon ratified by a sufficient numbers of states and became the Bill of Rights, but the first two failed to be immediately ratified. The second on the list, which had to do with Congressional pay, lapsed into obscurity for many years, until it was finally ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. The Congressional Apportionment Amendment never received sufficient ratifications, and is theoretically still pending before the states; however, it is unlikely the amendment will ever be approved. To date, only twelve states have ratified the amendment. The most recent state to do so was Kentucky in June of 1792 (Kentucky's initial month of statehood). The amendment deals with setting the size of the House of Representatives and reads as follows:

Article I. After the first enumeration required by the first article of the Constitution, there shall be one Representative for every thirty thousand, until the number shall amount to one hundred, after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall be not less than one hundred Representatives, nor less than one Representative for every forty thousand persons, until the number of Representatives shall amount to two hundred; after which the proportion shall be so regulated by Congress, that there shall not be less than two hundred Representatives, nor more than one Representative for every fifty thousand persons.

The amendment seeks to make certain that seats in the House are apportioned according to population, but given the current population of the United States, the algorithm it sets forth would now place very few restrictions on the size of the House. Were this amendment to pass today, it would allow anywhere between two hundred and nearly six thousand Representatives. Presently, there are 435 members of the House of Representatives.

See also

• List of unsuccessful attempts to amend the U.S. Constitution
• First Amendment to the United States Constitution

References

• Congressional Research Service. (1992). Proposed amendments not ratified by the states. In The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. (Senate Document No. 103–6). (Johnny H. Killian and George A. Costello, Eds.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

External links

• The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation is available at:
  • GPO Access (http://www.gpoaccess.gov/constitution/browse.html) - Official version of the document at the U.S. Government Printing Office.
  • FindLaw (http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/index.html) – FindLaw's version of the official document; incorporates 1996 and 1998 supplements into text, but does not include prefatory material included in official version.