Entrenched Clause - United States

United States

As examples of inadmissible constitutional amendments, Article Five of the United States Constitution contains two entrenched clauses. One clause prohibited any constitutional amendment regarding the international slave trade. This clause expired in 1808. The other clause, still in effect, states that "no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate". This has been interpreted to require unanimous ratification of any amendment altering the composition of the United States Senate.

However, the text of the clause would indicate that the size of the Senate could be changed by an ordinary amendment if each state continued to have equal representation. The clause does not appear to be self-entrenched; that is, it does not, by its express terms, forbid its own amendment or repeal. So it is possible that one could proceed by first repealing the clause and then abolishing equality in the Senate through a subsequent amendment .

The Corwin Amendment (1861), prohibiting a constitutional amendment with respect to slavery, might have become another entrenched clause had it become part of the U.S. Constitution.

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