A bad grade that changed the U.S. constitution (2017)

Catch-22:<p>After he got the amendment ratified, there&#x27;s a strong argument that the paper probably should have been given a higher grade. But had he been given that higher grade in the first place, he probably wouldn&#x27;t have gone through the effort to ratify the amendment.<p>You could argue that the paper <i>did</i> deserve the initial C grade, because that&#x27;s what it took to get him angry enough to go and get the amendment ratified.

There have been only two amendments to the U.S. Constitution over the past 50+ years (one of which is the subject of this story).<p>Why? Partly because the Supreme Court has been very willing to discover hidden rights within the existing amendments, decreasing the need for states to go through the very arduous process of getting a new amendment over the finish line.<p>That might seem like a fine way to handle things ... if the court is discovering constitutional rights that are in line with your views.<p>But this workaround puts a LOT of power into the hands of the nine justices who control the judicial branch. Amending the constitution was purposefully designed to be harder to do than passing normal legislation, which requires a majority of Congress plus the president&#x27;s signature. But in many pivotal cases over the past five decades, just five justices decided the outcome.

The Constitution of the United States<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.archives.gov&#x2F;founding-docs&#x2F;constitution-transcript" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.archives.gov&#x2F;founding-docs&#x2F;constitution-transcri...</a>

What&#x27;s really depressing to me is the struggles of the student and lecturer involved, intimated at but never really a focus in their own right:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statesman.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;20170314&#x2F;herman-35-years-later-a-for-austinite-who-got-constitution-amended" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.statesman.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;20170314&#x2F;herman-35-years-late...</a>

Wait, what. I’m more shocked at the part at the end about Mississippi not ratifying the abolition of slavery until 2013.

&gt; In 1995, he realized Mississippi had never ratified the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery. So he pushed that state&#x27;s Legislature to do it — and it worked.<p>Just think about that for a second: Someone had to push the state legislature to abolish slavery in 1995. Just sickening