Memo to 2016 candidates: Stop saying you'll amend the Constitution. You won't.

Looking at you, Scott Walker

Ted Cruz
(Image credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

It's been 23 years since we last amended the Constitution, and that was for a relatively unglamourous and uncontroversial idea: When Congress votes itself a pay raise, it won't take effect until the next Congress is seated. Despite the fact that few people ever voiced much objection, this amendment took 203 years to be ratified (really, no joke). Yet we still often act as though amending the Constitution would be possible on issues that are deeply contentious.

Or at least that's what presidential candidates tell us. Faced with the possibility of an upcoming Supreme Court decision declaring that same-sex couples have the same right to marry as anyone else — a decision that could come in a matter of weeks — some Republicans are falling back on the idea of amending the Constitution. Not to ban same-sex marriage nationally, but to allow individual states to ban it if they choose. Sunday on ABC's This Week, Scott Walker came out in support of such an amendment: "I personally believe that marriage is between one man and one woman," he said. "If the court decides that, the only next approach is for those who are supporters of marriage being defined as between one man and one woman is ultimately to consider pursuing a constitutional amendment."

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Paul Waldman

Paul Waldman is a senior writer with The American Prospect magazine and a blogger for The Washington Post. His writing has appeared in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and web sites, and he is the author or co-author of four books on media and politics.