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    "headline": "Gregory Watson’s C-graded 1982 college paper revived a 1789 amendment, ratified as the 27th in 1992",
    "description": "Gregory Watson's C-graded 1982 University of Texas paper launched the campaign that made a 1789 pay proposal the 27th Amendment in 1992.",
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    "articleSection": "History",
    "keywords": "Gregory Watson, James Madison, Twenty-seventh Amendment, University of Texas at Austin",
    "articleBody": "In 1982 a 19-year-old University of Texas at Austin student named Gregory Watson wrote a government-class paper arguing that a constitutional amendment proposed in 1789 was still alive. A teaching assistant gave it a C. Ten years later, that amendment became the 27th Amendment to the US Constitution. The history of the Twenty-seventh Amendment bears out the long-shot campus story. Watson’s subject was one sentence from the first Congress: “No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.” In plain terms, a pay raise or pay cut that Congress votes for itself cannot kick in until after the next House election. The amendment that missed the Bill of Rights James Madison introduced the idea in the House on June 8, 1789. On September 25, 1789, Congress sent 12 proposed amendments to the states. Numbers three through twelve were ratified and became the Bill of Rights. The pay amendment, listed second, stalled. Six states approved it by the end of 1791, and Kentucky did so in 1792, though nobody remembered that for two centuries. Ohio ratified in 1873 to protest an unpopular congressional raise, and Wyoming did the same in 1978. Then it sat. A C grade and a $6,000 campaign Watson argued in his paper that because the 1789 proposal carried no expiry date, states could still finish ratifying it. He appealed the C to the course instructor, Sharon Waite, who let it stand. “I kind of glanced at it, but I didn’t see anything that was particularly outstanding about it and I thought the C was probably fine,” she later said. Watson’s answer was a letter-writing campaign, paid for with about $6,000 of his own money. When he started in early 1982 he knew of only six ratifications. The University of Texas College of Liberal Arts says his break came through Maine senator William Cohen, who passed the idea to state lawmakers. “I wanted to demonstrate that one extremely dedicated, extremely vocal, energetic person could push this through,” Watson told the college. “I think I demonstrated that.” Maine ratified in April 1983 and Colorado in April 1984. Others followed. The numbers, worked out Before Watson, the amendment had collected nine ratifications in 189 years (1789 to 1978), and one of those, Kentucky’s, was lost. From Maine in April 1983 to Michigan in May 1992, a further 30 states signed on: an average of more than three a year, against fewer than one every 20 years before. The whole process, from proposal on September 25, 1789, to the effective date of May 5, 1992, took a little over 202 years and seven months. Certified, then argued over Michigan’s vote on May 7, 1992, was believed at the time to be the 38th, the three-quarters needed. On May 18, Archivist of the United States Don W. Wilson certified the amendment. Kentucky’s forgotten 1792 vote later meant Alabama, on May 5, had actually crossed the line. Some in Congress objected that Wilson had not waited for lawmakers. On May 20, 1992, both chambers accepted the ratification anyway: 99 to 0 in the Senate and 414 to 3 in the House. Kentucky, unaware of its own 1792 vote, ratified again in 1996 at Watson’s request; he only learned of the original in 1997. The grade change In 2017, University of Texas government professor Zach Elkins tracked down Waite, who had left academia to work on her family’s citrus farm, and the two filed a form changing Watson’s grade to an A+. “Goodness, he certainly proved he knew how to work the Constitution and what it meant and how to be politically active,” Waite said, adding that he deserved “an A after that effort – A-plus!” The university has no A+ grade, so the record may show an A. Other young Americans changed the law books too, among them Claudette Colvin, who refused her Montgomery bus seat 274 days before Rosa Parks. More stories like this are in our History section. Four states have never ratified the 27th Amendment: Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York and Pennsylvania. The most recent to sign on was Nebraska, on April 1, 2016. Further reading University of Texas College of Liberal Arts: The C that Changed the Constitution Wikipedia: Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution Illustrative image. Image: Daderot, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.",
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