B6

a) Amendments to the U.S. Constitution can be proposed in two ways. To propose an amendment is to suggest a change to the Constitution. The first is through a constitutional convention of state legislatures. However, this method has never been used. The other proposal process involves Congress. Congress must agree to propose an amendment by a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Once an amendment has been proposed, it is passed along to each state. For ratification to occur three-fourths of the state legislatures or thirty-eight states must approve the amendment. Ratification is the process by which a potential amendment becomes a full and legal part of the U.S. Constitution.

b) The first way to informally amend the Constitution originates in Marbury vs. Madison, a court case debating William Marbury's position as a Justice in Washington D.C. The court was able to throw out the entire issue by declaring Marbury's legal right to bring the case before the court unconstitutional. This established the precedent of judicial review. This is the ability of the Supreme Court to declare federal actions unconstitutional. The Supreme Court used judicial review to end segregation by declaring the previous "separate but equal" statute unconstitutional. The second method of informal constitutional change is by common use and acceptance. This means that while a facet of American politics may not be specifically outlined in the original Constitution, it is still accepted as a legal part of the political process. The most prominent example of this today is the role that political parties play. Parties have never explicitly been given the right to nominate presidential candidates or to run the electoral college system but these are both processes that are overseen by modern political parties without contention from the general public.

c) Formally amending the Constitution is a complex and difficult process. It has multiple stages and involves asking a lot of politicians to agree on an issue, something that is akin to a miracle in today's political climate. Even after an amendment is proposed it still must be ratified by three-fourths of the fifty U.S. states. States focus on a wide variety of issues and represent a diverse population with  interests and concerns that cover a huge range of topics. Because of this it is very difficult to pass an amendment to the Constitution formally. Informal methods such as common acceptance are simple an do not involve navigating the complicated world of American politics. In addition, Supreme Court rulings of constitutionality are often tied up in other issues and do not require as many steps or as complex a voting procedure.