Assessing Constitutional Literacy

Dreisbach, Christopher

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-56799-4_5

Christopher Dreisbach²

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Abstract

To begin, the 27th Amendment took over 202 years to ratify. It was originally the second of 12 Amendments that a supportive Congress sent to the states in 1789 for ratification. At the time, the states did not ratify this one or the first of the 12, involving congressional apportionment. The states did ratify the third through twelfth Amendments on Congress’s list, giving the USA its Bill of Rights. Note that the 1st Amendment in the ratified Bill of Rights was the third on the list that Congress approved. Thus, any reference to the 1st Amendment’s superiority to all others by the privilege of its place is a misunderstanding.

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Christopher Dreisbach

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Dreisbach, C. (2016). Assessing Constitutional Literacy. In: Constitutional Literacy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56799-4_5

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56799-4_5
Published: 20 September 2016
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