On May 5, 1992, the state of Alabama ratified the 27th Amendment, bringing it into effect 202 years after it was first brought before Congress. The 27th Amendment prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of the Congress from taking effect until the start of the next set of terms of office for Representatives.

The Amendment was first suggested in 1788 by North Carolina, and gained support from several other states. The Amendment, called the Congressional Compensation Amendment of 1789, was intended to serve as a restraint on the power of Congress to set its own salary. The Amendment was originally submitted to state legislatures for ratification by the 1st Congress. It was one of twelve Constitutional amendments submitted, of which ten became the Bill of Rights.

From 1789 to 1791, the compensation proposal was ratified by the legislatures of only six states out of the ten that were required at that time. In 1791, as more states entered the Union, the ratification threshold increased. However, no more states ratified the proposal until 1873, when Ohio ratified the compensation proposal in protest against the recently passed Salary Grab Act. The Salary Grab Act not only provided for a Congressional pay raise, but made that raise retroactive.

Again, there was a lengthy period of inactivity on the proposal until Wyoming ratified it in 1978, once again as a protest against a Congressional pay raise. This ratification, along with a grass-roots letter writing campaign, started a movement and many states ratified the proposal throughout the 1980s. Finally, on May 5, 1992, Alabama ratified the proposal and the Congressional Compensation Amendment of 1789 became the 27th Amendment of the United States – 202 years after the initial proposal!

The 27th Amendment remains the most recent Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as the Amendment with the longest ratification.