The Twenty-Seventh Amendment and Constitutional Change by Stealth

The 27th Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that any adjustment in compensation to legislators could take effect only after a new election was held, was ratified in 1992, some 203 years after it was first proposed. The amendment passed as a reaction of voters to a 1989 proposal by legislators for a increase in their salaries by 51%, from $89,500 to $135,000 per annum. A question as to the constitutionality of an amendment that took more than two centuries to pass is being raised.