On October 2, 1789, President George Washington, at the request of the First Congress, sent the 12 amendments approved by the First Congress on September 25, 1789 to the executives of the 13 existing States. The President requested that the State Executives submit these 12 amendment proposals for adoption or rejection to their respective state legislatures
This Congressional request included sending the amendment proposals to Rhode Island and North Carolina even though they had not yet ratified the Constitution, Vermont was not yet a state but was allowed to participate in the amendment ratification process because Vermont had been a part of the state of New York.
Nine of the thirteen states voted to ratify the originally proposed First Amendment. Connecticut was the tenth state to ratify, but did not notify Congress that they had done so. Had their vote been counted the amendment would have been lawfully ratified. If Vermont's ratification vote is counted, Connecticut would have been the eleventh or fourteen to ratify the proposed amendment.
Congress asserted that because Connecticut did not notify Congress their vote did not count and that only nine of the thirteen states had voted for ratification, If Connecticut's vote had been properly recorded the originally proposed First Amendment would have the ratification of the ten of the thirteen states required for ratification.
Even if Connecticut's vote is not counted the amendment would have either 10 or 14 ratification votes with only Delaware voting to reject the amendment. According to the Constitution three fourths of 14 states would be 10.5 states. According to Thomas Jefferson's method determining the number of states required needed to be reduced to 10 rather than being increased to 11.
Congress refused to accept Connecticut's ratification vote and in the following case the Supreme Court ruled that the states were not required to notify Congress ,Citing the Supreme Court decision of Coleman v. Miller 307 U.S. 433 (1939), LaVergne argues that acts of state legislatures are “self-enacting” and need not be approved or even recognized by Congress in order to be effective.
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