Stimulus behind the Amendments

[Peter]

What was the stimulus behind each of the Constitutional Amendments?

I got the following:

Bill of Rights: Madison's promise to the Anti-Federalists at the Convention.

11th: Chisholm v Georgia (1793)
Basically a citizen of one State sued another State; The States weren't happy with this, and used the Constitution to put an end to it.

12th: The deadlock of the 1804 election.
There was a deadlock in the EC and then the House over who should be President. Only resolved because of Adams effectively siding with Jefferson. This was a structural flaw in the original Constituiton that was soon corrected.

13th: The Civil War (and to an extent Dred Scott)
The Civil War was certainly in part to do with slavery; The North had opposed it in the territories and as a result of winning, to the victors went the spoils.

14th: The Civil War
Wanted to keep the Confederates out of office and also wanted to make sure that the Southern States couldn't deny citizenship to former slaves.

15th: The Civil War (still)
The North wanted to keep the South from stopping blacks and former slaves from voting as it was still continuing this practice.

16th: Various cases, esp. Pollock v Farmer's Loan and Trust (1895)
Basically the Supreme Court kept umming and arring over whether the Income Tax was a direct tax or not and therefore subject to apportionment. Pollock meant that it was direct; Though the Court began to back down, Congress decided to remove all doubt.

17th: Direct election of the Senate
Was there a specific precursor to this?

18th: Prohibition
Not sure if there was a specific precursor, though obviously a result of the social conservatism that was present in US society.

19th: Suffragist movement, especially women's role in the War effort.

20th: Anybody?

21st: Prohibition being a disaster

22nd: FDR getting elected 4 times.

23rd: Anybody?

24th: A last vestige of segregation

25th: Kennedy's death and also Wilson's disability in his later years.

26th: Oregon v. Mitchell (1970)
The Supreme Court said that Congress couldn't just use legislation to lower the voting age to 18. It went the long way round.

27th: Obviously a part of the original Bill of Rights, but was there some specific event that caused ratification to suddenly spark up again in the 1980s?

[minionofmidas]

Popular election of Senators was a part of the Populist platform of 1892, also I think of Bryan's platform.

[Jake]

20th was so Presidents could get working faster. FDR didn't like waiting for three months.

[minionofmidas]

20th was so Presidents could get working faster. FDR didn't like waiting for three months.

More to the point, America almost self-destructed during those three months.

Didn't remember that that one was the 20th, that's why I didn't mention it earlier.

[Peter]

There's a list of amendments

[A18]

How did America "almost self-destruct" in those three months?

[muon2]

Here's a history of the 27th from http://www.usconstitution.net/:

The 27th Amendment was originally proposed on September 25, 1789, as an article in the original Bill of Rights. It did not pass the required number of states with the articles we now know as the first ten amendments. It sat, unratified and with no expiration date, in constitutional limbo, for more than 80 years when Ohio ratified it to protest a congressional pay hike; no other states followed Ohio's lead, however. Again it languished, for more than 100 years.

In 1978, Wyoming ratified the amendment, but there was again, no follow-up by the remaining states. Then, in the early 1980's, Gregory Watson, an aide to a Texas legislator, took up the proposed amendment's cause. From 1983 to 1992, the requisite number of states ratified the amendment, and it was declared ratified on May 7, 1992 (74,003 days).

[David S]

What was the stimulus behind each of the Constitutional Amendments?

I got the following:

Bill of Rights: Madison's promise to the Anti-Federalists at the Convention.

11th: Chisholm v Georgia (1793)
Basically a citizen of one State sued another State; The States weren't happy with this, and used the Constitution to put an end to it.

12th: The deadlock of the 1804 election.
There was a deadlock in the EC and then the House over who should be President. Only resolved because of Adams effectively siding with Jefferson. This was a structural flaw in the original Constituiton that was soon corrected.

13th: The Civil War (and to an extent Dred Scott)
The Civil War was certainly in part to do with slavery; The North had opposed it in the territories and as a result of winning, to the victors went the spoils.

14th: The Civil War
Wanted to keep the Confederates out of office and also wanted to make sure that the Southern States couldn't deny citizenship to former slaves.

15th: The Civil War (still)
The North wanted to keep the South from stopping blacks and former slaves from voting as it was still continuing this practice.

16th: Various cases, esp. Pollock v Farmer's Loan and Trust (1895)
Basically the Supreme Court kept umming and arring over whether the Income Tax was a direct tax or not and therefore subject to apportionment. Pollock meant that it was direct; Though the Court began to back down, Congress decided to remove all doubt.

17th: Direct election of the Senate
Was there a specific precursor to this?

18th: Prohibition
Not sure if there was a specific precursor, though obviously a result of the social conservatism that was present in US society.

19th: Suffragist movement, especially women's role in the War effort.

20th: Anybody?

21st: Prohibition being a disaster

22nd: FDR getting elected 4 times.

23rd: Anybody?

24th: A last vestige of segregation

25th: Kennedy's death and also Wilson's disability in his later years.

26th: Oregon v. Mitchell (1970)
The Supreme Court said that Congress couldn't just use legislation to lower the voting age to 18. It went the long way round.

27th: Obviously a part of the original Bill of Rights, but was there some specific event that caused ratification to suddenly spark up again in the 1980s?

You have  a good handle on it. The only thing I could add is  the reason behind the 26th was that during the Vietnam war 18 year old men were being sent to fight and die in a war many of them did not support. The unfairness of saying they were old enough to die but not old enough to vote the war hawks out of office was apparent.

[A18]

If an amendment is passed by Congress, it should only go to the states currently in the union for ratification.

Also, there needs to be an automatic expiration date for amendments. After 7 years, if it hasn't been ratified, it should die.

[Peter]

If an amendment is passed by Congress, it should only go to the states currently in the union for ratification.

Well thats not how it works seemingly; I'm not sure if there is a commanding precedent on this, but I doubt its ever been tried in a Court.

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They started putting those on quite a few amendments after some case that I think was in the 1930s that said it was up to Congress to decide whether the time expired between submittal to the States and ratification was too long or not.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

The 20th was probably due more to the problems associated with the Lame Duck Congresses.  13 months passed between when a Congress was elected and its first regular session began.  Some States tried reducing the time period on their own, by delaying the election of thier Congressmen to later dates, sometimes even a full year, but whenever Congress was called into special session, between March and December, those States either went unrepresented or had to call hasty special elections, as for example after Fort Sumter in the Civil War.

As for the 23rd, the 60's saw a movement for DC Home Rule that succeeded as far as it did because the Congress was tired of having to micromanage the district, and no longer really had the time for it.  Congressional representation was left undone for several reasons.
1.  Congress was not about to let DC become a State.
2.  As such, it would take the approval of all 50 States to pass an amendment allowing DC to have Senators.
3.  The real work of the House is mostly done in committee, so having a Delagate is almost as good as having a Representative.