Pew Research: The U.S. Constitution Is Among the Hardest in the World to Amend

Americans want change. Term limits, campaign finance reform, structural reforms to how power is held in this country. And by wide margins, they've wanted it for years. The problem isn't the will of the people. The problem is the wall standing between that will and the law.

The U.S. Constitution is the second-hardest national constitution to amend in the entire world. Of 101 democratic constitutions studied by Pew Research Center, only the Federated States of Micronesia, a Pacific island nation of roughly 115,000 people, has a more demanding amendment process than ours. To change the U.S. Constitution, two-thirds of both the House and Senate must agree, and then 38 of 50 state legislatures must ratify the change. In today's political climate, that is an extraordinarily high bar.

In Pew surveys, Americans broadly support proposed changes to the political system, from age and term limits for government officials to campaign finance limitations. But most of those changes require going through an amendment process designed in an era of quill pens and horse travel.

That gap doesn't mean we give up. It means we get strategic. Every seat in Congress, every state legislature, every governorship matters, because systemic change begins with who holds power at every level.

Leading Ladies Vote exists for exactly this moment. When the rules make change hard, the answer is more women in the room, more progressive voices at the table, and more of us showing up to vote. Our vote is our power.

🔗 Read the full Pew Research report: How hard is the US Constitution to amend or change?

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