Coleman v. Miller
433 ( 1939 ) , is a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which clarified that if the Congress of the United States—when proposing for ratification an amendment to the United States Constitution , pursuant to Article V thereof—chooses "not" to set a deadline by which the state legislatures of three-fourths of the states or , if prescribed by Congress State ratifying conventions in three-fourths of the states , must act upon the proposed amendment , then the proposed amendment remains pending business before the state legislatures ( or ratifying conventions ) . 
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