Can Ratification of an Amendment to the Constitution Be Made to Depend on a Referendum?

Abstract

The Supreme Court of the United States will soon have to construe Article V of the federal Constitution, prescribing the method of adopting amendments to that instrument. First it will have to clear up doubt as to when the Eighteenth Amendment was adopted. The Ohio legislature ratified it, and then on referendum it was disapproved by the electors of Ohio. The Secretary of State of the United States proclaimed the Amendment when Ohio ratified it. If the referendum defeated the ratification by Ohio, then the date of its going into effect is postponed until some state acting thereafter ratified it. This date is important by reference to it in criminal and other statutes.