<P> The Constitution is silent on the issue of whether or not Congress may limit the length of time that the states have to ratify constitutional amendments sent for their consideration . It is also silent on the issue of whether or not Congress, once it has sent an amendment that includes a ratification deadline to the states for their consideration, can extend that deadline . </P> <P> The practice of limiting the time available to the states to ratify proposed amendments began in 1917 with the Eighteenth Amendment . All amendments proposed since then, with the exception of the Nineteenth Amendment and the (still pending) Child Labor Amendment, have included a deadline, either in the body of the proposed amendment, or in the joint resolution transmitting it to the states . The ratification deadline "clock" begins running on the day final action is completed in Congress . An amendment may be ratified at any time after final congressional action, even if the states have not yet been officially notified . </P> <P> In Dillon v. Gloss (1921), the Supreme Court upheld Congress's power to prescribe time limitations for state ratifications and intimated that clearly out of date proposals were no longer open for ratification . Granting that it found nothing express in Article V relating to time constraints, the Court yet allowed that it found intimated in the amending process a "strongly suggest (ive)" argument that proposed amendments are not open to ratification for all time or by States acting at widely separate times . The court subsequently, in Coleman v. Miller (1939), modified its opinion considerably . In that case, related to the proposed Child Labor Amendment, it held that the question of timeliness of ratification is a political and non-justiciable one, leaving the issue to Congress's discretion . It would appear that the length of time elapsing between proposal and ratification is irrelevant to the validity of the amendment . Based upon this precedent, the Archivist of the United States proclaimed the Twenty - seventh Amendment as having been ratified when it surpassed the "three fourths of the several states" plateau for becoming a part of the Constitution . Declared ratified on May 7, 1992, it had been submitted to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, an unprecedented time period of 202 years, 7 months and 12 days . </P> <P> Whether once it has prescribed a ratification period Congress may extend the period without necessitating action by already - ratified States embroiled Congress, the states, and the courts in argument with respect to the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (Sent to the states on March 22, 1972 with a seven - year ratification time limit attached). In 1978 Congress, by simple majority vote in both houses, extended the original deadline by 3 years, 3 months and 8 days (through June 30, 1982). </P>

What is the 5th article of the constitution