It's a well-established fact that as society progresses, people, places, and governments evolve, and the documents used to govern them often reflect this change.
Case in point, the United States' Constitution. Since it came into force on March 4, 1789, the Constitution has been amended a total of twenty-seven times (the first ten were en masse, collectively known as the Bill of Rights) to reflect the nation's changing status. Not all of these changes were ratified immediately; most took months, years, or even decades until the decision was made to add them. The latest took over 200 years to finally be ratified.
In fiction, however, if a work aims to portray a setting as either 20 Minutes into the Future or an Alternate History work, a common facet is for it to feature some new or alternate amendment not in the Constitution at the time that the work was made.
In the future version, if the setting is American-focused, this commonly takes the form of a 28th Amendment. Since the last amendment was ratified in 1992, there has been a lot of time for works to involve a hypothetical 28th Amendment. Although that isn't the only way this trope can play out, if a work is set far enough in the future, it can encompass amendment numbers far beyond the 28th. An alternate history work may cover a different version of an existing amendment, or an amendment that was proposed but not passed or ratified in our world.
The new amendment can be a positive or negative thing, depending on the context. In the negative approach, the new amendment may end up as the sole basis for an Oppressive States of America or Fallen States of America setting; it's also a Dystopian Edict. Relatedly, if the amendment in question grants the President or another high-ranking politician far-reaching powers, this overlaps with Emergency Authority. If the work takes a more positive approach, it can serve as a way to demonstrate that The Future Will Be Better by the amendment granting something considered progressive in the current time.
The amendment could also be used solely to repeal a currently existing amendment if a specific amendment is inconvenient to the story the author wants to tell. If the setting is The Dictatorship, it will usually be an amendment that is considered fundamental to American freedom that is repealed, such as the 1st Amendment, or the 22nd Amendment allowing them to be President for Life note . In real life, only one amendment has ever been repealed: the 18th (Prohibition), which was repealed by the 21st.
While it is most common for this trope to appear from an American perspective, it is not limited solely to that. The trope can involve a fictional amendment to the constitution of another country. The country to which the amendment applies may itself not even exist, or it may not be a country at all, but rather something akin to an entire planet.
In a Speculative Fiction setting, this amendment may cover something entirely fictional to us, like magic or monsters. Logically, unless the setting operates under some kind of Masquerade, there would need to be laws for stuff like that. If this appears in superhero genre, it is likely to be some form of a Super Registration Act. Could also end up overlapping with Fantastic Legal Weirdness.
See also Fictional Document and 25th Amendment.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
Examples:
- The DCU: In the DC universe, the 12th amendment allows members of the Federal Authority of Registered Meta-Humans to decline to answer questions about their secret identities. Presumably, this is to avoid self-incrimination.
- Give Me Liberty: The 22nd Amendment has been repealed, allowing Erwin Rexall to serve at least 4 terms as President of the USA.
- The Simpsons: Inverted in the comic story "Hail to the Cat", where elected mayors of Springfield are allowed to remove any amendment from the Constitution. Quincy removed the third amendment, while Lisa, posing as the liaison for Mayor Snowball II, decides to remove the second amendment since the rule was made in case the British ever returned. Shortly after this repeal, British forces unexpectedly invade Springfield.
- Watchmen: In 1975, after Dr. Manhattan helps ensure victory in Vietnam, Richard Nixon proposes an amendment that would repeal the term limit. Ten years later, he's on his fifth term in office.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past - Doomsday: Inverted; in the first issue, it's revealed that the 22nd Amendment was repealed, allowing for William Stryker to stay President. However, in a case of Artistic License – Law, it isn't repealed by the States, but by the Supreme Court.
- The 28th Amendment
, a RPF Fan Fic by bessemerprocess written in 2008, postulates a Huckabee presidency; an amendment declaring requiring conformity to Old Testament laws is passed, and various media people — Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert and others — deal with the fallout in their own ways, including exile to Canada or overseas, dying, or going to prison.
- Adventures of a Line Hopper: Claimed in Happy Endings by Seo (assumed to be Buffy and the Doctor's Kid from the Future) who says that she can recite all 95 amendments backwards, such as the one made after the Second Great Zombie Uprising ("The rights of man are not extended to those who rely on the digestion of human brain tissue to ensure their own survival"). Given that Seo is a self-professed liar and the reveal of where she actually comes from, it is doubtful that her claim holds any weight.
- Eleutherophobia: In Ghost in the Shell, Steve mentions that there's now a Twenty-Eighth Amendment that forbids taking on someone else's physical form through morphing or infestation.
- In the Real-Time Fandub of Shadow the Hedgehog, Shadow edits the Constitution to give furries full citizenship and the right to vote.
- Demolition Man: Between 1996 and 2032, the number of amendments to the Constitution has jumped to at least 61. Although we don't have the full details, the 61st, which was ratified thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger's popularity, apparently eliminates the requirement that a presidential candidate be born in the United States. This allowed him to serve as president for a time.
- The Purge Universe's titular Purge is introduced as the 28th amendment to the constitution. From 7 p.m. on March 21 to 7 a.m. on March 22, all crime is legal, and emergency services are suspended. The only prohibitions are that you can't use Class 4 weapons (explosives), and political officials "rank 10 or higher" are off limits. Violation of any of these results in execution. Somehow, this leads to a prosperous new era for the United States, with employment down to 1% and the economy booming.
- The fittingly named novel The 28th Amendment by Jamie Richards covers the titular Amendment that President C.H. Moses proposed and got passed, a Constitutional Amendment that made murder legal. The idea was that the fear of now-legal revenge for murders would be a better deterrent for crime than law enforcement. As one would expect, things don’t go well.
- Blue Skies in Camelot: The timeline sees the Equal Rights Amendment being passed as the 27th Amendment (which was proposed in real life, but never got ratified).
- In Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway Dave rewrites the Constitution, with the new amendments covering common pet peeves from his column, including low-flow toilets, the metric system, frivolous lawsuits, the Express Lane Limit, saving seats in theaters, light beer, tipping, salad dressing on the side, cellphones, buying alcohol with fake ID, SUVs speed limits on interstates, videotape pirating, the best version of the song "Twist and Shout", telemarketing, shooting TV sets after disappointing football games, and penalties for the doctor if he makes you wait too long.
- Harrison Bergeron: The 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the Constitution helped to usher in a golden age of equality...by destroying any inborn advantages one person might have over another. This is done through devices called handicaps. The strong wear weights, the beautiful wear masks, and the intelligent wear earpieces that fire off loud noises to keep them from taking unfair advantage of their brains.
- "The Purple Fields" by Robert Crane features a society with extreme prejudice against older people. It is mentioned that the Thirty-Ninth Amendment says "No person shall be eligible to the office of President who has passed the age of thirty-five years".
- In Rumsfeldia: Fear and Loathing in the Decade of Tears, President Evil Donald Rumsfeld proposes a 28th amendment. This new amendment would repeal the 17th Amendment and, in its place, provide a formula where the President can appoint one of a State's Senators, while the Governor can appoint the other. This alternates by election cycle, with the President getting the first selection. It ends up being ratified on June 23, 1986.
- An In-Universe example in Breaking Bad: Badger gets caught in a drug bust because the undercover cop posing as a customer lied to him that Must State If You're a Cop is written in the constitution. It wasn't.
- For All Mankind: As a result of the Butterfly Effect from the Soviets landing on the moon instead of the US, Ted Kennedy is elected in the 1972 election instead of Richard Nixon. This results in the Equal Rights Amendment getting passed (which is the 27th Amendment in the show, but completely different from the Real Life one). The amendment was only passed due to numerous underhanded deals, which ultimately ended up causing some negative consequences.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Drumhead," Simon Tarses invokes the Seventh Guarantee as protection against self-incrimination, apparently the Federation constitution's analogue to the USA's Fifth Amendment.
- The Tick (2016): The series has an example with the 28th Amendment; the exact details are unclear except for the fact that it means that the government can’t forcefully unmask Superheroes. Though for a Superhero to be protected by it, they need to register with AEGIS.
- Chrononauts is a game involving time travel and rewriting history. One such alteration, only possible if John Lennon's assassination was foiled and replacing Columbine on the board, involves the 29th Amendment, which repeals the 2nd Amendment. The content of the 28th Amendment is left unspecified.
- Day of the Tentacle: After Hoagie puts a flier in the suggestion box, the Founding Fathers add it as an amendment to the Constitution, saying, "Every American should have a vacuum cleaner in their basement."
- In Deus Ex, the Sporting Weapons Act of 2042 effectively repealed the 2nd amendment. In response, militia groups formed all over the country and refused to surrender their rifles, grenades, land mines, and other "collectibles" prohibited by the Act.
- Things That Never Were: If Bobby wins all 538 electoral votes, an ending slide mentions that the 22nd Amendment was repealed in the 1970s and he is still serving as President for Life at nearly 100 years old. However, it's clear that he's a Scatterbrained Senior and Puppet King who hates his role as a figurehead, and his Vice Presidents have held all the power for decades.
- The Archdruid Report: In the final installment of the How It Could Happen series of posts, the 28th Amendment to the United States's constitution is the last: with its passing, the United States ceases to exist and splits into many smaller political entities.
- Summoning Salt: In the April Fools' Day video about Plug 'n' Play Game "Kash Dash", where Summoning Salt is making a purposefully over-the-top made-up backstory about the game. "Kash Dash" becomes so popular that nobody is working anymore, which wrecks the entire United States economy, forcing the government to introduce a new amendment, the 28th Amendment, outlawing the sale, purchase, and distribution of the game, with the punishment being life imprisonment.
- One of the books recovered from SCP-1986 is the second volume of the diary of Woodrow Wilson, who serves as President of the Imperial States of America. Among the contents are his thoughts on the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants citizenship to "The Afflicted."
- Futurama: In "Insane in the Mainframe", Fry catches Roberto trying to rob a bank, but Roberto threatens him if he rats him out. In the courtroom, Roberto is sitting in the audience and calls Judge Whitey's cell phone in order to directly threaten Fry.
Roberto: ...and the other hamburger will also be made of your lungs. So long, pal.Fry: I refuse to testify on the grounds that my organs will be chopped up into a patty.Judge Whitey: Ah, the 67th Amendment.