Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The 27th Amendment

Episode Date: August 6, 2021

The American constitution was written in 1788, but there was a mechanism built in to adapt and change the document. Since 1788 the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992. The most recent amendment, however, had a path to ratification which was far different than any other of the 26 before it. Learn more about the 27th amendment and the very circuitous route it took to ratification, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American Constitution was written in 1787, but there was a mechanism built in to amend and change the document over time. Since 1787, the Constitution has been amended 27 times, most recently in 1992. The most recent amendment, however, had a path to ratification, which was far different than any of the 26 before it. Learn more about the 27th Amendment and a very circuitous route it took to ratification on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now.

Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by Expedia's OutTravel the System podcast. I know you love to hear the story. behind the story. So let me tell you why I think you might want to listen to the Expedia podcast Out Travel the System. This season alone, the show talks to someone on a mission to visit every country in the world. In case you're wondering, the tally stands at 194 out of 197 countries. There's the man who's visited and stayed at literally thousands of hotels who share some of his favorite unique accommodations and experiences. Or how about the woman who has reached some deep

philosophical conclusions about travel and privilege in no small part because of the pandemic? Get all of this and more when you tune into the show, including larger insights about the future of travel, as well as tips and tricks to maximize your savings for your next trip, whenever you feel ready to head out into the world again. You can find Out Travel the System on your podcast platform of choice. The 27th Amendment is pretty short, so I'll just read it in its entirety. Quote, no law varying the compensation for the services of senators and representatives shall take effect until an election of representatives shall have intervened. End quote. Basically, Congress can't give itself a pay raise until there's been an election.

As amendments go, it's pretty non-controversial. It became part of the Constitution on May 18, 1992, when the archivist of the United States approved that three-quarters of the states had approved the amendment. Seven states went through the process of formally ratifying the amendment after it became part of the Constitution, most notably Nebraska in 2016. And just as a refresher, for an amendment to become ratified, it has to be approved by Congress, by a two-thirds majority in both houses, and then it must be approved by three-fourths of the state legislatures. It's a high bar to cross, but that's the point, for something to become part of the Constitution it needs to have overwhelming support.

If you remember back to my episode on unratified amendments, there are a few amendments that have been stuck in limbo. They were approved by Congress, but they were never approved by the states. What we call the 27th Amendment was once an unratified amendment. From the time it was passed by Congress to the time it was ratified by the last state, took a whopping 204 years. How in the world did this amendment take so long to pass, and what eventually revived it from the dead? Believe it or not, the Congressional Pay Amendment was actually part of a collection of 12 amendments, which we today call the Bill of Rights.

Only 10 of the 12 amendments originally passed back in the 18th century. Actually, if you want to get technical, James Madison had originally come up with 20 amendments, which was then whittled down to 17 when it was debated in the House, and then the Senate brought it down to 12, which were approved by Congress. And just in case you're wondering, that 12th Amendment, which was never ratified, dealt with congressional apportionment. It's probably a good thing that it was never ratified because it just wouldn't work with a country with 330 million people. Also, that unratified amendment was originally stated to be the first amendment of the original list of 12. The Congressional Pay Amendment came very close to passing when it was first release.

When Congress sent the 12 amendments to the states on September 24, 1789, the Congressional Pay Amendment was listed second. Four states ratified the Congressional Pay Amendment rather quickly, Maryland, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Delaware. Then Vermont joined the Union in 1791, and they ratified it later in the year followed by Virginia. Kentucky joined the Union in 1792, and they ratified it within a month. of becoming a state. And this is where it stood for 81 years. Nine states had ratified the amendment, but the number of states required for passage grew as more states were admitted to the union. In 1873, Ohio approved the amendment in protest of the Salary Grab Act, which doubled the salary of the president and Supreme Court justices. Likewise, 105 years later in 1978, Wyoming approved

the amendment in protest of a congressional pay raise. And this is where things stood in 1982, where this story takes a completely unexpected turn. 19-year-old Gregory Watson was an undergraduate at the University of Texas in Austin. For an assignment in a political science class, he had to write a paper about some governmental process. He researched the process for the approval of constitutional amendments. During his research, he came across a chapter of a book on the subject of unratified amendments. The Congressional Pay Amendment just jumped out at him. His paper was on the amendment and how he believed that despite being initially proposed almost 200 years earlier, it was still alive and could still be ratified.

He turned in his paper to his teaching assistant and received a C. He appealed the grade to his professor of the course, Sharon Waite. She recalled the encounter by saying, quote, I kind of glanced at it, but I didn't see anything that was particularly outstanding about it, and I thought the C was probably fine." End quote. She refused to change the grade. According to Watson, quote, So I thought right then and there, I'm going to get that thing ratified, end quote.

He said about to ratify a constitutional amendment just despite his professor. He began writing members of Congress to see if anyone would know someone back at their home state who would be interested in introducing a ratification bill. He got a few negative replies, but, mostly it was silence. No one really cared. Then he got a positive reply from a senator from Maine, William Cohen. The same William Cohen, who would later serve as Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton. He passed it on to someone in Maine, who passed it on to someone else, who passed it on to someone else. Finally, on April 27, 1983, Maine ratified the amendment. He had actually

gotten one state to go along with his campaign. From there, things started picking up steam. Colorado passed it in 1984. Five states ratified it in 1985. Three states each passed it in 86, 87, and 88. Seven states passed it in 1989, two in 90, and one in 91. Entering 1992, there were three more states needed for ratification. On May 5th, both Missouri and Alabama, both passed it. Then on May 7th, Michigan ratified the amendment, and it became part of the Constitution. It only took 204 years and one disgruntled student to get the amendment passed. According to Watson, quote, I wanted to demonstrate that one extremely dedicated, extremely vocal energetic person

could push this through. I think I demonstrated that, end quote. He actually continued on this path. He realized that Mississippi never ratified the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery, and he got them to finally ratify it, even if it was just ceremonial. As an epilogue to the story, after having driven a successful campaign to get a constitutional amendment passed, this was brought to the attention of his college professor who had originally given him a sea.

She was blown away. She said, quote, Many people have said, you never know what kind of effect you're going to have on other people and on the world. And now I'm in my 70s. I've come to believe that's very, very true. And this is when it really hit me, because I thought to myself,

You have, just by making this fellow a great he didn't like, affected the U.S. Constitution more than any of your fellow professors ever thought about, and how ironic is that? End quote. In 2017, 35 years after issuing the grade, Sharon Waite filed the paperwork with the University of Texas to change Gregory Watson's grade from a C to an A. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. Today's review comes from listener Dean Laughan over at Podjaser.

He writes, This is easily one of the best pods on the planet and one of my top five greatest of all time. In about ten minutes, Gary delivers all you need to know on the most incredibly peripatetic topics. Here's the fact. Even the topics you look at in your pod app and think, Ah, this one might not be for me. Wrong. When you listen, you'll love it.

I listen to a lot of pods. And there are only a few that when I see their icon in my update feed list, it gives me a little jolt of excitement. This is definitely one of those. Plus, you get to sound really smart at cocktail parties and barbecues. Oh, the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Did you know that? Wow, thanks, Dean.

I have to say your review is probably the goat of reviews. I'm probably going to use excerpts from it from my media kit. Remember, if you leave a review or send in a question, you too might get it read on the show.