Time limit for ratifying the Twentieth Amendment
Official text rightpowerlimitif conditionlegal term
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.
Proposal and ratification: The twentieth amendment to the Constitution was proposed to the legislatures of the several states by the Seventy-Second Congress, on the 2d day of March, 1932, and was declared, in a proclamation by the Secretary of State, dated on the 6th day of February, 1933, to have been ratified by the legislatures of 36 of the 48 States. was completed on January 23, 1933.
Simplified explanation
This article is inoperative unless ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission.