Article V

The framers of the Constitution were acutely aware that the document they were drafting might prove imperfect or require adaptation over time, yet they were equally concerned that the amendment process not be so easy as to render the Constitution unstable. Their immediate predecessor, the Articles of Confederation, required unanimous consent of all thirteen states to amend — a threshold so demanding that it had made necessary reforms effectively impossible. That experience was a direct motivation for Article V. At the same time, the framers feared a system so easily altered that temporary majorities could rewrite fundamental law on a whim, undermining the protections the Constitution was designed to provide.