FACT CHECK: Viral Image Claims To Show A ’28th Amendment’ That ‘Hasn’t Been Upheld In Years’
An image shared on Facebook more than 74,000 times claims a “28th Amendment” to the Constitution bars Congress from making laws that do not apply equally to both citizens and lawmakers.
“The 28th Amendment hasn’t been upheld in years,” reads the caption. “Congress: ‘What 28th Amendment, America sit your a** down!'”
Verdict: False
There are only 27 amendments to the Constitution. No such amendment exists.
Fact Check:
The Constitution provides a framework for the federal government and guarantees certain basic rights to U.S. citizens. To date, it has 27 amendments.
Yet, while the Constitution’s 27 amendments are clearly enumerated, a viral Facebook post alleges in an image that there is a “28th Amendment” barring Congress from making laws that do not apply equally to both citizens and legislators. The text of this “28th Amendment” has been circulating on various platforms since at least 2010, according to FactCheck.org.
“Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives,” reads the bogus amendment. “And, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the Citizens of the United States.”
The most recent amendment to the Constitution stipulates that any change in pay for members of the House and Senate cannot take effect “until an election of representatives shall have intervened.” It was ratified in 1992, according to the National Constitution Center.
Some lawmakers have proposed amendments similar to the one in the Facebook post, but they have never been ratified. (RELATED: Did The Federalist Papers Say, ‘The Constitution Of The United States Limits The Power Of The Federal Government, Not The People’?)
For instance, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul introduced a joint resolution “relative to applying laws equally to the citizens of the United States and the Federal Government” in 2013. The resolution died in committee that year and again in 2015, when he reintroduced it.
Similar amendments introduced in the House around the same time also failed to gain traction.