Article V outlines the formal processes by which the Constitution can be amended, establishing a rigid mechanism that requires broad national consensus. An amendment can be proposed in one of two ways: by a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds (currently 34) of the state legislatures. Once an amendment is officially proposed, it must be ratified to become part of the Constitution. Ratification also offers two pathways, determined by Congress: approval by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states (currently 38), or by special ratifying conventions held in three-fourths of the states.

Article V includes a crucial historical restriction, forbidding any amendment from disrupting the slave trade before 1808, and an unamendable proviso ensuring that no state can be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate without its explicit consent.