Reply #10: Not the only one.

[Tamyrlin79]

Most Amendments, since at least the 18th Amendment (though they skipped it on the 19th Amendment and picked back up on #20), have had a seven year time limit imposed on it for ratification. So, you are wrong to be cynical about this particular amendment being "the only amendment in our history with a deadline for passing by the states." This is WRONG WRONG WRONG! Look at nearly every amendment since the 18th, and it is there in black and white, some provision, like so, from the 18th Amendment:

Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several states, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the states by the Congress.

The reason is a court case (though I can't recall to cite) that arose as to whether a state could still ratify an old amendment or whether, after a certain time, that amendment had effectively expired. The Court essentially held that, since the Constitution didn't impose a time limit, that Amendments could be considered indefinitely until ratified. In response, the legislature (Congress) started including a time limit provision on all amendments, such that now the standard, accepted time limit is seven years from the date of passage. I wish they'd just pass a Time Limit Amendment setting it to seven years for all future amendments so they wouldn't have to keep pasting the same clauses into all future amendments (it is quite repetitive at this point), but that's where things stand on the issue as of now.