REWRITING THE CONSTITUTION

The U.S. Constitution, drafted in 1787, was written to be amended: mended, repaired, reformed, and improved. It hasn't exactly worked out that way. More than eleven thousand constitutional amendments were formally introduced on the floor of Congress between 1789 and 2021 and many thousands more have been proposed by the public, but only twenty-seven have ever been ratified, making the American Constitution one of the world's most difficult to amend. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Constitution has become effectively un-amendable, chiefly due to widening political polarization. But when Americans have wanted to change their constitution, what, exactly, have they wanted to do? Amend is a fully searchable public archive of thousands of failed amendments, from joint resolutions of Congress to party platforms to thousands of petitions submitted to Congress by citizens, churches, and community organizations.