A change to the U.S. Constitution

• A. Amendment
• B. Act
• C. Statute
• D. Ordinance

Answer: (A)

A change to the U.S. Constitution is called an amendment. An amendment is a formal alteration to the document itself, adding, removing, or changing provisions, and it becomes part of the Constitution once it’s properly proposed and ratified. This process is intentionally demanding to ensure broad consensus across different parts of government and the states. For a federal amendment, proposals typically come from two-thirds of both houses of Congress or from a national convention called by two-thirds of the states, and ratification requires three-fourths of the states. By contrast, an act, statute, or ordinance refers to laws created by legislative bodies—federal, state, or local—that regulate conduct or establish programs, but they do not modify the Constitution.