Is there a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that has long been ignored? No, that's not true: There are only 27 amendments and none states that "Congress shall make no law that applies to its citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives."
The claim has gone viral several times since 2010, and it resurfaced in a post (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on October 26, 2019, with user Marshall Gwynn declaring: "CAN WE MAKE THIS GO VIRAL?!!!" It opened:
Amendment 28: Congress shall make no law that applies to its citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and Representatives: and, Congress shall make no law that applies to Senators and Representatives that does not apply equally to the Citizens of the United States."
The meme was shared more than 21,000 times across Facebook, which has since marked it as false information after fact-checkers pointed out the inaccuracy of the meme.
Many users ate up the meme. "Democrats are like criminals, they don't obey laws!" one user declared.
Another said: "They will never obey that rule.. they're too used to screwing us."
The meme appears to have taken the idea of the amendment from U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky. On October 11, 2013, the senator offered this proposed amendment:
Section 1. Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to Congress.
Section 2. Congress shall make no law applicable to a citizen of the United States that is not equally applicable to the executive branch of Government, including the President, Vice President, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and all other officers of the United States, including those provided for under this Constitution and by law, and inferior officers to the President established by law.
The amendment died in committee.
