I thought it might be interesting to repost this item which ran here on June 30, 2003. I'll save you doing the math. That was 13 years, 6 months, 4 days ago. In it, as you can see, I note that people are always calling for Constitutional Amendments…and then nothing happens. They say we absolutely must have it and then they do nothing or almost nothing about it.
I would guess that in the 13 years, 6 months, 4 days since I posted this, there have been many thousands of calls for Constitutional Amendments that someone feels are desperately, vitally necessary…and not a one of them has moved an inch towards being voted upon, let alone adopted.
Dr. Frist, by the way, left the Senate in 2007. Though he had been one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, he said that as a doctor, he would have voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act. One can only speculate what his support for it might have meant had he still been in the G.O.P. leadership. Anyway, here's what I wrote back then…
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist wants a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Has anyone ever calculated the follow-through rate when prominent politicos call for a Constitutional amendment? I doubt it…but I'm guessing it's well under a thousandth of a percent.
Quick: When was the last time a move to amend the Constitution went the distance and actually occurred? Answer: 1992. And that was a provision with no opposition whatsoever — a technicality about Congressional paychecks.
Before that, the last amendment that actually was passed was to lower the voting age to 18, back in 1971. I recall very little opposition to that one. And before that, it was another uncontested, no-opposition change about presidential succession in 1967.
It's been close to 40 years in this country since we've passed a Constitutional amendment that had more than token opposition. But every week, when some Supreme Court decision or act of Congress doesn't go their way, someone's on Meet the Press, saying we need and will pass a Constitutional amendment undoing that loss.
I doubt even Dr. Frist thinks we'll ever see an amendment like he describes. He just thinks it's good politics to say that. It makes his supporters think the battle is not over and that if they keep throwing campaign contributions and efforts at Frist and his party, something will happen. But since that amendment is never going anywhere, it won't do much to energize the opposition.