When the Constitution of a State is amended care must be taken to see to it that the amendment proposed does not involve a violation of the Constitution of the United States.  For a constitution adopted by the people of a State in so far as it violates the Constitution of the United States is void, for exactly the same reason that an Act passed by a State Legislature is void if it is contrary to some provision in the Constitution of the United States.  This is so because the Constitution of the United States in the Sixth Article directs that “This Constitution ... shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.”

But any amendment with a single exception, which is proposed by Congress, no matter what it may be, if it has received the two-thirds vote of both Houses and has been ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the States, or of three-fourths of the conventions in the several States, according as Congress has submitted it in the one way or the other, is valid irrespective of any provision that can be found in any State Constitution or law.  The one exception to which reference has been made is that no change can be made which would deprive a State of its right to equal representation in the Senate.  As it is, the Senate is composed of two Senators from each state.  New York and Nevada, the one with a population of 9,113,614, and the other with a population of 81,875 are entitled to equal representation in that body, and that equality of representation cannot be destroyed by any amendment not assented to by all the States.  The reason is that the Constitution expressly declares in the Fifth Article—­the one which deals with amendments—­“that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.”  This provision was incorporated into the Constitution at the suggestion of Roger Sherman of Connecticut.  Certain other restrictions were imposed which now have become unimportant, but which at the time were of the greatest possible importance.  It was provided that no amendment was to be made prior to the year 1808 which should prohibit the States from further importation of slaves, and that no capitation or other direct tax should be laid unless in proportion to the census or enumeration of the inhabitants of the states in which three-fifths only of the slaves were included.  So we see that the founders withdrew from the possibilities of amendment the subjects regarding which they were unwilling amendments should be made.  The understanding of the States therefore must have been that as respects all subjects not so withdrawn the right of amendment might be exercised whenever the States desired to exercise it.  Whenever they do see fit to exercise it they are not breaking faith with each other, or doing anything wrongfully.