The Constitution of 

the United States of America

with Explanatory Notes

AMERICA ABOUT
ABOUT AMERICA: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF 

AMERICA with Explanatory Notes adapted from THE WORLD BOOK 

ENCYCLOPEDIA (c) 2004 World Book, Inc. By permission of the 

publisher. www.worldbook.com

The Constitution of the United States, the brainchild of 

some of America’s greatest leaders following the colonies’ War 

for Independence, has protected Americans’ rights and liberties 

since it went into effect on June 21, 1788. The document also 

has served as an inspiration to patriots everywhere who wish 

to establish “a wise and just Government,” the goal delegate 

George Mason set for the framers gathered at the Constitutional 

Convention in 1787.

For readers interested in the study of this historic 

document and its relevance to contemporary democratic 

government, this publication offers the complete, authoritative 

text of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the other 

amendments ratified since the first 10. It includes an essay 

on the historical developments that led to the convening of the 

Constitutional Convention, the disputes and compromises among 

the delegates, and the ratification and amendment process. 

Finally, it also provides explanatory notes for the text of the 

Constitution and its 27 amendments.
I. Introductory Essay ......................................................... 3

 The Supreme Law of the Land ....................................... 4

 The Need for the Constitution ........................................ 6

 The Constitutional Convention ...................................... 8

 Ratifying the Constitution ............................................ 13

 The Bill of Rights ......................................................... 14

 The Development of the Constitution .......................... 15

II. The Constitution of the U.S. (Text) ............................... 19

 Amendments to the Constitution,

 including the Bill of Rights (Text) ............................... 33

III. The Constitution of the U.S. (Annotated version) ......... 45

 Amendments to the Constitution,

 including the Bill of Rights (Annotated version) ......... 70

T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S

The Constitution of 

the United States of America

with Explanatory Notes

AMERICA AMERICA ABOUT
One country, 

one constitution, 

one destiny.

U.S. Senator Daniel Webster

March 15, 1837

“

”
3

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED 

STATES sets forth the nation’s fundamental laws. It establishes the form of the national 

government and defines the rights and liberties of the American people. It also lists 

the aims of the national government and the methods of achieving them. Previously, 

the nation’s leaders had established an alliance among the states under the Articles of 

Confederation. But the Congress created by the Articles 

lacked the authority to make the states work together to 

solve national problems.

After the states won independence in the Revolutionary 

War (1775-1783), they faced all the problems of peacetime 

government. The states had to enforce law and order, collect taxes, pay a large public debt, and regulate trade 

among themselves. They also had to deal with Indian 

tribes and negotiate with other governments. Leading 

statesmen, such as George Washington and Alexander 

Hamilton, began to discuss the need to create a strong 

national government under a new constitution.

Hamilton helped bring about a constitutional convention that met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1787 to 

revise the Articles of Confederation. But a majority of the 

delegates at the convention decided instead to write a 

new plan of government — the Constitution of the United 

States. The Constitution established not merely a league 

of states, but a government that exercised its authority 

directly over all citizens. The Constitution defines the 

powers delegated to the national government. In addition, it protects the powers reserved to the states and the 

A later call for unity appears in this rights of every individual. July 1776 illustration of 13 hands — 

symbolizing the colonies’ declaration 

of independence from Britain.

Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 drawing 

of a severed snake calls for unity 

among the colonies who, with the 

British, confronted France in the 

French and Indian War. 
4 

The Constitution consists of a preamble, 

seven articles, and 27 amendments. It 

sets up a federal system by dividing 

powers between the national and state 

governments. It also establishes a balanced national government by separating powers among three independent 

branches — the executive, the legislative, 

and the judicial. The executive branch, 

the President, enforces national laws; the 

legislative branch, the Congress, makes 

national laws; and the judicial branch, the 

Supreme Court and other federal courts, 

applies and interprets laws when deciding 

legal disputes in federal courts.

Federal powers listed in the 

Constitution include the right to collect 

taxes, declare war, and regulate interstate 

and foreign trade. In addition to these delegated, or expressed powers (those listed 

in the Constitution), the national government has implied powers (those reasonably implied by the delegated powers.) 

The implied powers enable the government to respond to the changing needs 

of the nation. For example, Congress had 

no specific delegated power to print paper 

money. But such a power is implied in the 

delegated powers of borrowing and coining money.

In some cases, the national and 

state governments have concurred powers — that is, both levels of government 

may act. The national government laws 

are supreme in case of a conflict. Powers 

that the Constitution does not give to 

the national government or forbid to the 

states, reserved powers, belong to the 

people or to the states. State powers 

include the right to legislate on divorce, 

marriage, and public schools. Powers 

reserved for the people include the right 

to own property and to be tried by a jury.

The Supreme Court has the final 

authority to interpret the Constitution. It 

can set aside any law — federal, state, 

or local — that a majority of the justices 

believes conflicts with any part of the 

Constitution.

John Marshall served briefly as U.S. Secretary 

of State before being appointed the nation’s fourth 

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. As Chief Justice 

for 34 years, Marshall established the principle of 

judicial review.

The Supreme Law of the Land
5

Engraving depicts Federal Hall 

in New York City, where George 

Washington, the nation’s first 

President, was inaugurated on 

the balcony in April 1789. The 

new Congress conducted its 

business at Federal Hall before 

moving temporarily to Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania, and then in 1800 

to the newly built capital city of 

Washington, D.C.

The first national coins 

were issued by the newly 

independent United States 

in 1787. The coin has 13 

linked circles and the words, 

“We are one,” inscribed in the 

center. Other side of the coin 

depicts a sun dial and 

the Latin word, “Fugio,” 

meaning “time flies.”
6 

The government established by the 

Articles of Confederation was not strong 

enough to govern the new nation. For 

example, it lacked an executive branch 

and a system of national courts. It could 

not regulate trade between the states or 

tax the states or their citizens. It was little 

more than an assembly of the representatives of 13 independent states.

In 1783, after the Revolutionary War, 

the nation entered a period of unstable 

commercial and political conditions. 

Alexander Hamilton and his supporters 

would have had little success in their 

campaign for a new constitution if conditions had been better. Some historians 

perhaps have painted the troubles of the 

new republic in much too gloomy colors. 

But little doubt remains that the situation 

became steadily worse after 1783. Each 

state acted almost like an independent 

country. Each ran its own affairs exactly as 

it saw fit, with little concern for the needs 

of the republic. The states circulated a dozen different currencies, most of which had 

little value. Neighboring states taxed each 

other’s imports. Great Britain refused to 

reopen the channels of trade that the colonies had depended on for their economic 

well-being. The state legislatures refused 

to pay the debts they had assumed during 

the Revolutionary War. Many states passed 

laws that enabled debtors to escape paying their obligations.

Worst of all, some people began to 

think once again of taking up arms in 

order to solve their problems. In western 

Massachusetts in 1786, hundreds of farmers under Captain Daniel Shays rebelled 

against the state government. State troops 

finally put down Shays’s Rebellion. George 

Washington and other leaders wondered 

whether the colonies had rebelled against 

Great Britain in vain. They felt it was time 

to end these troubles and bring peace and 

order by forming a new national government. This new government would have 

to be strong enough to gain obedience at 

home and respect abroad.

Representatives from five states met 

in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1786. They 

proposed that the states appoint commissioners to meet in Philadelphia and consider revising the Articles of Confederation. 

Congress agreed to the proposal and suggested that each state select delegates to 

a constitutional convention.

Daniel Shays, left, and Job Shattuck, shown in this 

engraving from Bickerstaff’s Boston Almanack

for 1787, led debt-ridden farmers against the 

Massachusetts state government. The rebellion 

dramatized the need for stronger central government.

The Need for the Constitution
7

Right, George Washington, 

Commander-in-Chief of the 

Continental Army during 

the Revolutionary War, was 

elected first President of the 

United States.

Above, examples of 

Revolutionary War currency, 

which often had little value. 

The new Constitution gave 

the power to coin and 

regulate money to the federal 

government.
8 

The Convention was supposed to open on 

May 14, 1787. But few of the 55 delegates 

had arrived in Philadelphia by that date. 

Finally, on May 25, the Convention formally opened in Independence Hall. Twelve 

states had responded to the call for the 

Convention. Rhode Island had refused to 

send delegates because it did not want 

the national government to interfere with 

Rhode Island’s affairs.

Of the 55 delegates, 39 signed the 

United States Constitution on September 

17, 1787. One of the signers was John 

Dickinson of Delaware, who left the 

Convention but asked another delegate, George Read, to sign for him. 

William Jackson, the Convention secretary, witnessed the signatures. The 

delegates included some of the most 

experienced and patriotic men in the new 

republic. George Washington served as 

president of the Convention. Benjamin 

Franklin, at the age of 81, attended as a 

Representative of Pennsylvania. The brilliant Alexander Hamilton represented New 

York. James Madison of Virginia received 

the title of “Father of the Constitution” with 

his speeches, negotiations, and attempts 

at compromise. Madison told the delegates they were considering a plan that 

would “decide forever the fate of republican government.” He kept a record of the 

delegates’ debates and decisions.

Other men who had much to do with 

writing the Constitution included John 

Dickinson, Gouverneur Morris, Edmund 

Randolph, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, 

and George Wythe. Morris was probably 

the most influential delegate after Madison 

and Washington. He was given the task 

of putting all the Convention’s resolutions and decisions into polished form. 

Morris actually “wrote” the Constitution. 

An original copy of the document is preserved in the National Archives building in 

Washington, D.C.

Several important figures of the time 

did not attend the Convention. John 

Adams and Thomas Jefferson were absent 

abroad on other government duties. 

Samuel Adams and John Jay failed to be 

appointed delegates from their states. 

Patrick Henry refused to serve after his 

appointment because he opposed granting any more power to the national government. Three leading members of the 

convention — Elbridge Gerry, George 

Mason, and Edmund Randolph — refused 

to sign the Constitution because they disagreed with parts of it.

The Constitutional Convention

James Madison, who later became the nation’s fourth 

President, played a pivotal role at the Constitutional 

Convention, where he was dubbed the “Father of the 

Constitution.”
9

THE BACKGROUND OF THE CONSTITUTION. The delegates to the 

Constitutional Convention relied greatly 

on past experience as they worked to 

create a new government. They recalled 

many important events in the development of constitutional government. These 

included the granting of Magna Carta, 

an English constitutional document, in 

1215, and the meeting of the Jamestown 

Representative Assembly in 1619. Some 

of the colonies also served as examples 

of constitutional forms of government. 

Colonial governments had weaknesses 

but had progressed beyond other governments of their time in achieving liberty 

under law.

About the time of the Revolutionary 

War, several American states established constitutional governments. In 

1777, John Jay of New York had helped 

Above, wood engraving of the General Assembly held 

in 1619 in Jamestown, Virginia, shows representatives, 

or “burgesses,” meeting with the governor and his 

council. The assembly formed the New World’s first 

colonial legislature.

Left, illustration from the Massachusetts treasury note 

of 1775 links the cause of American independence to 

English Magna Carta of 1215.

The “Grand Union Flag,” which first appeared on 

January 2,1776, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

There, militia troops had gathered under the 

command of General George Washington to form 

the Continental Army.
10 

write a constitution for his state. John 

Adams of Massachusetts had helped 

write the Massachusetts Constitution of 

1780. Delegates to the Constitutional 

Convention in Philadelphia used many 

ideas and words from the constitutions of 

these and other states.

The delegates also drew on their 

own experiences. For example, Benjamin 

Franklin had proposed a plan at the Albany 

Congress of 1754 to unify the colonies 

under a central government. Washington 

remembered his own problems during 

the war when, as Commander-in-Chief, he 

had to work with the weak Confederation 

government. Almost every delegate to the 

Convention had served as a soldier or 

administrator of the government. The delegates often disagreed on details but were 

united in wanting the new government to 

be strong enough to rule the nation, but 

no so strong as to threaten the liberties of 

the states and of the people.

THE COMPROMISES. The task of 

creating a new government was not easily accomplished. Disputes among the 

delegates nearly ended the Convention 

on several occasions. For example, delegates from the large and more populous states disagreed with those from 

the small states about representation in 

the national legislature. The larger states 

favored the Virginia Plan, under which 

population would determine the number 

of representatives a state could send to 

the legislature. The smaller states supported the New Jersey Plan, which proposed that all the states would have an 

equal number of representatives. The 

Connecticut delegates suggested a compromise that settled the problem. Their 

plan provided for equal representation in 

the Senate, along with representation in 

proportion to population in the House of 

Representatives. This proposal became 

known as the Connecticut Compromise

or the Great Compromise.

Compromises also settled conflicts over the issue of slavery. The delegates from the Northern states wanted 

Congress to have the power to forbid 

the foreign slave trade and eventually to abolish slavery. Most Southern 

delegates did not wish Congress to have 

this power. A compromise decided that 

Benjamin Franklin, representing the state of 

Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention, 

was instrumental in forging the so-called Great 

Compromise, setting up a two-house congress.
11

Congress would not be allowed to regulate 

the foreign slave trade until 1808. Another 

compromise involved the question of how 

to count slaves in determining the number 

of congressmen a state could have. Slaves 

were not considered citizens, and so the 

Convention agreed that only three-fifths 

of them could be counted.

The delegates agreed that each state 

should hold a special convention to discuss and vote on the Constitution. They 

also decided that as soon as nine states 

had ratified (approved) the Constitution, 

the Constitution would take effect and 

they could begin to organize their new 

government.

Top, campaigning for the Constitution: In 1788, The Massachusetts Centinel featured pillars representing the 

states’ progress toward ratification of the Constitution. Here, North Carolina and Rhode Island — the two leaning 

pillars — have not yet ratified. Above, drawing depicts the celebration at the Federal Banquet Pavilion in New 

York City for those who marched in support of the new Constitution.
12 

The Federalist essays, published in 1788, represent one of America’s most important 

contributions to constitutional theory.

This drawing 

appeared in the 

1788 edition of 

Bickerstaff’s Boston 

Almanack. It shows 

elder statesmen 

George Washington 

and Benjamin 

Franklin driving the 

“Federal Chariot,” 

pulled by the 13 

states, and heading 

toward ratification of 

the Constitution.
13

Less than three months after the 

Constitution was signed, Delaware became 

the first state to ratify it, on December 7, 

1787. New Hampshire was the ninth state, 

putting the Constitution into effect on 

June 21, 1788. But the Founding Fathers 

could not be sure that the Constitution 

would be generally accepted until the 

important states of New York and Virginia 

had ratified it. Powerful organized opposition to the Constitution had developed in 

these two states and in others. Such men 

as Elbridge Gerry, Patrick Henry, Richard 

Henry Lee, and George Mason spoke out 

against ratification.

Critics objected that a bill of rights 

had not been included, that the President 

had too much independence, and that 

the Senate was too aristocratic. They 

also thought Congress had too many 

powers and the national government 

had too much authority. Friends of the 

Constitution rallied support for ratification. 

They became known as Federalists. Their 

opponents were called Antifederalists. 

The two groups promoted their causes 

in newspapers, in pamphlets, and in 

debates in the ratifying conventions. The 

groups developed into the first American 

political parties.

Virginia ratified the Constitution on 

June 25, 1788, and New York did so on 

July 26. Early in January 1789, all the 

ratifying states except New York (which 

failed to appoint electors by the deadline) 

selected presidential electors in their legislatures or by a direct vote of the people. 

On February 4, the electors named George 

Washington as the first President of the 

United States. The first Congress under 

the Constitution met in New York City on 

March 4. Washington was inaugurated on 

April 30. But North Carolina and Rhode 

Island refused to approve the Constitution 

and take part in the new government until 

Congress agreed to add a bill of rights.

Ratifying the Constitution

Alexander Hamilton, who later became the first 

Secretary of the Treasury, wrote 51 of the 85 essays 

in The Federalist, which defended the newly drafted 

Constitution and called for its ratification.
14 

The Federalists might never have 

obtained ratification in several important states if they had not promised to 

add a bill of rights to the Constitution. 

Most state constitutions adopted during 

the Revolution had included a clear declaration of the rights of all people. Most 

Americans believed that no constitution 

could be considered complete without 

such a declaration. George Mason of 

Virginia was responsible for the first and 

most famous American bill of rights, the 

Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776. He 

and Patrick Henry might have prevented 

ratification of the Constitution in Virginia 

if the Federalists had not agreed to their 

demands for amendments.

James Madison led the new Congress 

in proposing amendments. He suggested 15 amendments, and the Congress 

accepted 12 of them to be submitted for 

ratification by the state legislatures under 

the amending process outlined in the Fifth 

Article of the Constitution. By December 

15, 1791, the necessary legislatures in 

three-fourths of the states had approved 

10 of the 12 amendments. These 10 

amendments are known as the Bill of 

Rights. One of the two rejected amendments dealt with the size of the House of 

Representatives. It would have changed 

representation from no more than one 

representative for every 30,000 persons 

to no more than one for every 50,000 

persons. The other rejected amendment 

provided that Congress could not change 

the salaries of its members until after 

an election of representatives had been 

held. It was ratified 202 years later and it 

became the 27th Amendment.

The Antifederalists accepted defeat 

when the Constitution was adopted, and 

then they set about to win power under its 

rules. Their actions set a style for American 

politics that has never changed. Americans 

sometimes feel dissatisfied with the policies and practices of those who govern. 

But few Americans have condemned the 

constitutional system or have felt that a 

second Constitutional Convention might 

establish a better one.

The Bill of Rights

George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of 

Rights, refused to sign the Constitution because it 

contained no Bill of Rights guaranteeing the basic 

liberties of each citizen.
15

James Madison declared, “In framing a 

system which we wish to last for ages, 

we should not lose sight of the changes 

which ages will produce.” The Constitution 

was designed to serve the interests of the 

people — rich and poor, Northerners 

and Southerners, farmers, workers, and 

business people. Through the years, the 

Constitution has been interpreted to meet 

the changing needs of the United States.

Delegates to the Constitutional 

Convention believed strongly in the rule 

of the majority, but they wanted to protect minorities against any unjustness 

by the majority. They achieved this goal 

by separating and balancing the powers 

of the national government. Other basic 

constitutional aims included respect for 

the rights of individuals and states, rule 

by the people, separation of church and 

state, and supremacy of the national 

government.

The Constitution has been amended 

27 times, including the Bill of Rights. 

Amendments may be proposed by twothirds of each house of Congress or by a 

national convention called by Congress at 

the request of the legislatures in two-thirds 

of the states. An amendment becomes 

part of the Constitution after being ratified 

either by the legislatures of three-fourths 

of the states or by conventions in threefourths of the states. Congress decides 

which form of ratification should be used 

and how much time the states have to 

consider each amendment. In many 

cases, Congress has chosen a seven-year 

period for such consideration.

The delegates to the Constitutional 

Convention knew they could not write laws 

for every possible situation. Therefore, 

they gave Congress the right to pass 

all laws that are “necessary and proper” to carry out powers granted by the 

Constitution to the President, Congress, 

and federal courts. Congress has passed 

laws to establish such administrative 

organizations as the Federal Aviation 

Administration and the Postal Service. 

Congress also has passed laws to regulate 

interstate commerce, thereby controlling 

many aspects of the U.S. economy.

COURT DECISIONS. Federal and state 

judges apply the Constitution in many 

court cases. The Supreme Court has the 

final authority in interpreting the meaning of the Constitution in any specific 

case. The court has the power of judicial 

review — that is, it can declare a law 

unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has 

this power largely because of the decision 

of Chief Justice John Marshall in the case 

of Marbury v. Madison in 1803. Since that 

time, the court has ruled that more than 

125 federal laws and hundreds of state 

laws were unconstitutional.

The Development of the Constitution

Detail of the 1792 plan for the city of Washington, D.C., 

which was designed to serve as the capital of the 

United States.
16 

Engraving by 

Thomas Clarkson in 

The History of the 

Rise, Progress, and 

Accomplishment of 

the African Slave 

Trade, vol. 1, 1808. 

Civil War portrait of Abraham 

Lincoln; in the background is the 

1863 Emancipation Proclamation, 

which granted freedom to slaves 

in states then in rebellion against 

the Union. Slavery was finally 

abolished by the 13th Amendment 

to the Constitution in 1865.
17

PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS. Strong 

Presidents have used their authority to 

expand the simple words of the Second 

Article of the Constitution into a source of 

great presidential power. Such Presidents 

include George Washington, Thomas 

Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham 

Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow 

Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and George 

W. Bush. Washington, for example, made 

the President the leading figure in foreign 

affairs. Lincoln used the powers set forth 

in the article to free the slaves from the 

southern states in rebellion during the 

Civil War (1861-1865). 

CUSTOMS have made the Constitution 

flexible and have added to the powers of 

the national government. For example, the 

President’s cabinet developed from the 

words in the Second Article that permit 

the chief executive to “require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in 

each of the executive departments, upon 

any subject relating to the duties of their 

respective offices.”

STATE AND PARTY ACTIONS. The 

Constitution provides for a general method of electing a President. It does not 

mention political parties. But state laws 

and political party practices have changed 

the constitutional system of voting into 

the exciting campaigns and elections that 

take place today.

The Constitution has continued to 

develop in response to the demands of 

an ever-growing society through all these 

methods. Yet the spirit and wording of 

the Constitution have remained constant. 

People of each generation have applied its 

provisions to their own problems in ways 

that seem reasonable to them.

The British statesman William E. 

Gladstone described the Constitution as 

“the most wonderful work ever struck off 

at a given time by the brain and purpose 

of man.” In a world of change and struggle, 

the American people have no 

more precious possession than 

this great document. The complete text of the Constitution 

of the United States and its 

amendments is presented on 

the following pages. It is followed by the complete text with 

explanatory notes. 4

Suffragists marched on Washington, D.C.’s 

Pennsylvania Avenue on March 3, 1913, one of many 

demonstrations held over the years to gain the vote for 

women. The Capitol is in the background.
18 

Delegates to the Philadelphia 

convention of 1787 sign the 

newly written Constitution in 

this 1940 painting by Howard 

Chandler Christie. These men 

are often referred to as the 

“Founding Fathers.”

The 13 state seals (circles), 

entwined with the great 

seal of the United States of 

America (top), surround the 

head of George Washington, 

in this commemorative 

engraving by Amos Doolittle.
19

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

The following text of the United States Constitution reflects the original spelling and usage. 

Brackets [ ] indicate parts that have been changed or set aside by amendments.

We the People of the United States, in Order 

to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for 

the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to 

ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 

of America.

ARTICLE. I.

Section. 1.

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which 

shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

Section. 2.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by 

the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications 

requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five 

Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, 

be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States [which 

may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be 

determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service 

for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.] The 

actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress 

of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they 

shall by Law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty 

Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration 

shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts 
20 

eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New 

Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, 

South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof 

shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the 

sole Power of Impeachment. 

Section. 3.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, [chosen 

by the Legislature thereof,] for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be 

divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class 

shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration 

of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year; so that one third 

may be chosen every second Year; [and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, 

during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary 

Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.]

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been 

nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of 

that State for which he shall be chosen. 

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no 

Vote, unless they be equally divided. 

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence 

of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, 

they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the 

Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two 

thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, 

and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United 
21

States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, 

Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. 

Section. 4.

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be 

prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law 

make or alter such Regulations, [except as to the Places of chusing Senators.] 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, [and such Meeting shall be on the 

first Monday in December,] unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. 

Section. 5.

Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own 

Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller 

Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of 

absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly 

Behaviour; and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member. 

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, 

excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the 

Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be 

entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, 

adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses 

shall be sitting.

Section. 6.

The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be 

ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all 

Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their 

Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from 

the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any 

other Place. 
22 

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed 

to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or 

the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding 

any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance 

in Office.

Section. 7.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate 

may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills. 

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, 

before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve 

he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it 

shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed 

to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass 

the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall 

likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. 

But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the 

Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each 

House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays 

excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner 

as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which 

Case it shall not be a Law. 

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of 

Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented 

to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be 

approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate 

and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case 

of a Bill.

Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power 

To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the 

common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and 

Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

To borrow Money on the credit of the United States; 
23

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the 

Indian Tribes;

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of 

Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of 

Weights and Measures; 

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United 

States;

To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors 

and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against 

the Law of Nations;

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures 

on Land and Water;

To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer 

Term than two Years; 

To provide and maintain a Navy;

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces; 

To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress 

Insurrections and repel Invasions;

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part 

of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States 

respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia 

according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
24 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding 

ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, 

become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over 

all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall 

be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings; 

— And

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the 

foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 

United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

Section. 9.

The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think 

proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight 

hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding 

ten dollars for each Person.

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of 

Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. 

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed. 

No Capitation, [or other direct,] Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or 

Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. 

No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one 

State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to 

enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by 

Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public 

Money shall be published from time to time. 

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of 

Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, 

Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. 
25

Section. 10.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and 

Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender 

in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the 

Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. 

No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports 

or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and 

the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be 

for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the 

Revision and Controul of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or 

Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or 

with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger 

as will not admit of delay. 

Article. II.

Section. 1.

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall 

hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen 

for the same Term, be elected, as follows 

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of 

Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may 

be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of 

Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

[The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of 

whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they 

shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which 

List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of the 

United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in 

the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the 

Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the 

President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if 

there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the 
26 

House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if 

no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like 

Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, 

the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist 

of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall 

be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having 

the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should 

remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the 

Vice President.] 

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they 

shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States. 

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the 

Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any 

person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, 

and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. 

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability 

to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice 

President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation 

or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act 

as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a 

President shall be elected. 

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall 

neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, 

and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or 

any of them. 

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or 

Affirmation: —“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of 

President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend 

the Constitution of the United States.” 

Section. 2. 

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and 

of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; 

he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive 
27

Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall 

have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in 

Cases of Impeachment. 

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, 

provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with 

the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and 

Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose 

Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: 

but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think 

proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of 

the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session. 

Section. 3. 

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and 

recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; 

he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case 

of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn 

them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public 

Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all 

the Officers of the United States. 

Section. 4. 

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from 

Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and 

Misdemeanors. 

Article. III. 

Section. 1.

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such 

inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both 

of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour; and shall, 

at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished 

during their Continuance in Office. 
28 

Section. 2. 

The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this 

Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, 

under their Authority;— to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and 

Consuls;— to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;— to Controversies to which 

the United States shall be a Party;— to Controversies between two or more States;— 

[between a State and Citizens of another State;]— between Citizens of different States,— 

between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and 

between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, [Citizens or Subjects.]

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a 

State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases 

before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and 

Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. 

The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial 

shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not 

committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by 

Law have directed. 

Section. 3.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in 

adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of 

Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in 

open Court. 

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of 

Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person 

attainted. 

Article. IV. 

Section. 1.

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial 

Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the 

Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof. 
29

Section. 2.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the 

several States. 

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from 

Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the 

State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of 

the Crime. 

[No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into 

another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such 

Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or 

Labour may be due.] 

Section. 3.

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be 

formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the 

Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of 

the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations 

respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this 

Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any 

particular State. 

Section. 4. 

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of 

Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the 

Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic 

Violence. 

Article. V. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose 

Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of 

the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, 

shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the 
30 

Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, 

as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided 

[that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and 

eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first 

Article; and] that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage 

in the Senate. 

Article. VI. 

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this 

Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under 

the Confederation. 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance 

thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United 

States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be 

bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary 

notwithstanding. 

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State 

Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the 

several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no 

religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under 

the United States. 

Article. VII. 

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment 

of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same. 

The Word, “the,” being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first 

Page, The Word “Thirty” being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of 

the first Page, The Words “is tried” being interlined between the thirty second and 

thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word “the” being interlined between the 

forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

Attest William Jackson Secretary
31

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of 

September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the 

Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth 

In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, 

Go. Washington - Presid.t and deputy from Virginia

New Hampshire

John Langdon

Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts

Nathaniel Gorham

Rufus King 

Connecticut

Wm. Saml. Johnson

Roger Sherman

New York

Alexander Hamilton 

New Jersey

Wil: Livingston

David Brearley.

Wm. Paterson. 

Jona: Dayton 

Pennsylvania

B Franklin

Thomas Mifflin

Robt Morris

Geo. Clymer

Thos. FitzSimons 

Jared Ingersoll 

James Wilson 

Gouv Morris

Delaware

Geo: Read

Gunning Bedford jun

John Dickinson 

Richard Bassett 

Jaco: Broom 

Maryland

James McHenry

Dan of St Thos. Jenifer 

Danl Carroll

Virginia 

John Blair—

James Madison Jr.

North Carolina

Wm. Blount

Richd. Dobbs Spaight

Hu Williamson

South Carolina

J. Rutledge

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Charles Pinckney

Pierce Butler

Georgia

William Few

Abr Baldwin
THE BILL OF RIGHTS

The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were proposed on September 

25, 1789, and ratified on December 15, 1791. Originally, the amendments restricted 

only the Federal government. But the 14th Amendment declares that no state can 

deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without “due process of law.” The 

Supreme Court has interpreted those words to mean that most of the Bill of Rights 

applies to limit the states and their local governments as well.

As shown here, the Bill of Rights originally contained 12 articles, but the states ratified only 10 of them.

32
33

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION 

OF THE UNITED STATES

(The Bill of Rights: Amendments I - X)

The Preamble to The Bill of Rights

Congress of the United States 

begun and held at the City of New-York, on

Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the 

Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, 

that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the 

ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its 

institution.

RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in 

Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be 

proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of 

the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said 

Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz.

ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of 

America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, 

pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free 

exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the 

people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the 

people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 
34 

Amendment III

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the 

Owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against 

unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but 

upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place 

to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on 

a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval 

forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any 

person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall 

be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, 

liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public 

use without just compensation. 

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, 

by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, 

which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the 

nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to 

have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of 

Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right 

of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined 

in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. 
35

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual 

punishments inflicted. 

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or 

disparage others retained by the people. 

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 

States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 

Amendment XI (1795) 

The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law 

or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another 

State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State. 

Amendment XII (1804) 

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and 

Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with 

themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in 

distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of 

all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the 

number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the 

seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;--The 

President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, 

open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;--The person having the greatest 

number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the 

whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the 

persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as 

President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. 

But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from 

each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members 

from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. 
36 

{And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of 

choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the VicePresident shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability 

of the President}* — The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, 

shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors 

appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the 

list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of 

two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be 

necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall 

be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

Amendment XIII (1865) 

Section 1. 

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party 

shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to 

their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XIV (1868) 

Section 1. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, 

are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make 

or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United 

States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process 

of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Section 2. 

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective 

numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, [excluding Indians not taxed.] 

But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice 

President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial 

* Superseded by Section 3 of the Twentieth Amendment.
37

officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 

inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, 

or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of 

representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male 

citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in 

such State.

Section 3. 

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice 

President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, 

who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United 

States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any 

State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or 

rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may 

by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4. 

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts 

incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or 

rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume 

or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 

States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations 

and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5. 

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of 

this article. 

Amendment XV (1870) 

Section 1. 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 

United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 

* Changed by Section 1 of the Twenty-sixth Amendment.
38 

Section 2. 

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Amendment XVI (1913) 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source 

derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census 

or enumeration. 

Amendment XVII (1913) 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected 

by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in 

each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of 

the State legislatures. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the 

executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, 

That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to 

make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature 

may direct. 

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator 

chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

Amendment XVIII (1919, repealed by Amendment XXI) 

Section 1. 

After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation 

of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from 

the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is 

hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. 

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by 

appropriate legislation. 
39

Section 3. 

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within 

seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Amendment XIX (1920) 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the 

United States or by any State on account of sex. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Amendment XX (1933) 

Section 1. 

The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, 

and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years 

in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of 

their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at 

noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. 

Section 3. 

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall 

have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been 

chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall 

have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President 

shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a 

President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as 

President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall 

act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. 
40 

Section 4. 

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from 

whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice 

shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from 

whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have 

devolved upon them. 

Section 5. 

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of 

this article.

Section 6. 

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years 

from the date of its submission. 

Amendment XXI (1933) 

Section 1. 

The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is 

hereby repealed. 

Section 2. 

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United 

States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is 

hereby prohibited. 

Section 3. 

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within 

seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 
41

Amendment XXII (1951) 

Section 1. 

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who 

has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to 

which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President 

more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President 

when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may 

be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this 

article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during 

the remainder of such term. 

Section 2. 

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from 

the date of its submission to the states by the Congress. 

Amendment XXIII (1961) 

Section 1. 

The District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall appoint in such 

manner as the Congress may direct: 

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators 

and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a state, but 

in no event more than the least populous state; they shall be in addition to those appointed 

by the states, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and 

Vice President, to be electors appointed by a state; and they shall meet in the District and 

perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment. 

Section 2. 

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
42 

Amendment XXIV (1964) 

Section 1. 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for 

President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or 

Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state 

by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. 

Section 2. 

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Amendment XXV (1967) 

Section 1. 

In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice 

President shall become President. 

Section 2. 

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate 

a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses 

of Congress. 

Section 3. 

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the 

Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to 

discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written 

declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the 

Vice President as Acting President. 

Section 4. 

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive 

departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the 

President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their 

written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his 

office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office 

as Acting President. 
43

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the 

Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he 

shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of 

either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress 

may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and 

the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is 

unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the 

issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, 

within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in 

session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by twothirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties 

of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; 

otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office. 

Amendment XXVI (1971) 

Section 1. 

The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not 

be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of age. 

Section 2. 

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment XXVII (1992) 

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall 

take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened. 
An original copy of 

the Constitution of 

the United States 

of America is 

preserved in the 

National Archives in 

Washington, D.C.

The State 

House, center, 

in Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania, which 

later became known 

as Independence 

Hall. The members 

of the Constitutional 

Convention met 

there and drafted the 

Constitution in 1787.
45

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES

ANNOTATED

The following text of the United States Constitution, reflecting the original spelling and usage, 

is printed in large type. Brackets [ ] indicate parts that have been changed or set aside by 

amendments. Additional paragraphs, headed “Commentary,” are printed in smaller type, 

as shown here, and are not part of the Constitution. They explain the meaning of certain 

passages, or they describe how certain passages have worked in practice.

Preamble

We the People of the United States, in Order 

to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for 

the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to 

ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States 

of America.

Article I

Section 1

THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United 

States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

COMMENTARY: 

The first three articles of the Constitution divide the powers of the United States government 

among three separate branches: (1) the legislative branch, represented by Congress; (2) the 

executive branch, represented by the President; and (3) the judicial branch, represented by 

the Supreme Court. This constitutional division, called the separation of powers, is designed 

to prevent any branch of the government from becoming too powerful. In addition, the 

Constitution creates checks and balances by providing the means by which each branch is 

required to work with the other branches in order to carry out its functions. For example, the 

President nominates federal judges but the Senate must confirm them. 
46 

The two-house — bicameral — Congress was one of the most important compromises of 

the Constitutional Convention. The small states at the Convention supported the New Jersey 

Plan, under which each state would have had the same number of Representatives. The large 

states wanted the Virginia Plan, which provided representation based on population. As a 

compromise, one house was chosen according to each plan.

Article I

Section 2

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

(1) The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by 

the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications 

requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

COMMENTARY:

Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. If a person is 

eligible to vote for the “most numerous branch” of his or her state legislature, he or she also is 

eligible to vote for members of Congress. (All states except Nebraska have a two-house state 

legislature.) The question of who can vote for state legislators is up to the state, subject to the 

restrictions of the Constitution and federal law, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 15th, 

19th, 24th, and 26th Amendments forbid the states to deny or restrict a citizen’s right to vote 

because of race, sex, or failure to pay a tax; or age if the person is at least 18 years old.

(2) No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five 

Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, 

be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

COMMENTARY:

Each state decides for itself the requirements for legal residence, subject to Constitutional 

limits. Most Representatives live not only in the state but also in the district from which they are 

chosen.

(3) Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States [which 

may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, 

which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those 

bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other 

Persons.] The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of 

the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such 

Manner as they shall by Law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for 

every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such 

enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, 
47

Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, NewYork six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North 

Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

COMMENTARY: 

The effect of this paragraph has been greatly altered both by amendments and by new 

conditions. It now provides only three things: (1) the number of Representatives given each 

state shall be based on its population; (2) Congress must see that the people of the United 

States are counted every 10 years; and (3) each state gets at least one Representative.

The words “and direct taxes” mean poll taxes. The 16th Amendment gives Congress the 

right to tax persons according to the size of their own income, rather than according to the 

population of the state in which they happen to live.

In the reference to “three-fifths of all others persons,” the “other persons” meant slaves. 

Since there are no longer any slaves, this part of the paragraph no longer has any meaning.

The requirement that there shall be no more than one Representative for every 30,000 

persons no longer has any practical force. In 1929, Congress fixed the total number of 

Representatives at 435 and it has remained there ever since.

(4) When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority 

thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

COMMENTARY: 

If a vacancy occurs in a House seat, the state governor must call a special election to fill it. 

However, if the next regularly scheduled election is to be held soon, the governor may allow the 

seat to remain empty rather than call a special election.

(5) The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have 

the sole Power of Impeachment.

COMMENTARY: 

The House chooses an officer called the Speaker to lead meetings. The House alone has 

the power to bring impeachment charges against a federal official. It has impeached 16 federal 

officers, including two presidents, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and William Jefferson Clinton in 

1998. The Senate tries impeachment cases.

Article 1

Section 3

THE SENATE

(1) The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, 

[chosen by the Legislature thereof,] for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. 
48 

COMMENTARY: 

The Constitution at first provided that each state legislature should pick the state’s two 

Senators. The 17th Amendment changes this by providing for the voters of each state to 

choose their own Senators.

(2) Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they 

shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the 

first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the 

Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year; so 

that one third may be chosen every second Year; [and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, 

or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may 

make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then 

fill such Vacancies.]

COMMENTARY: 

Senators are elected to six-year terms. Every two years, one-third of the Senators are 

elected and two-thirds are holdovers. This arrangement makes the Senate a continuing 

body, unlike the other House, whose entire membership is elected every two years. The 17th 

Amendment changed the method of filling vacancies. The governor chooses a Senator until 

the people elect one.

(3) No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, 

and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an 

Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

COMMENTARY: 

In 1806, Henry Clay of Kentucky was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the Senate. 

He was only 29, a few months younger than the minimum age, but no one challenged the 

appointment. In 1793, Albert Gallatin was elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania. He was 

barred from taking office because he had not been a citizen for nine years.

(4) The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no 

Vote, unless they be equally divided. 

COMMENTARY: 

The Vice President serves as president of the Senate. He votes only when a tie vote 

occurs. The Vice President’s power to break ties can be important. In 1789, for example, 

Vice President John Adams cast the vote that decided the President could remove Cabinet 

members without Senate approval.

(5) The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the 

Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the 

United States.
49

COMMENTARY: 

The Senate elects an officer called the president pro tempore to lead meetings when the 

Vice President is absent.

(6) The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that 

Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States 

is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the 

Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

COMMENTARY: 

The provision that the Chief Justice, rather than the Vice President, shall preside over the 

Senate when a President is on trial probably grows out of the fact that a Senate conviction of 

a President would make the Vice President the President. The phrase “on oath or affirmation” 

means that Senators are placed under oath when trying impeachment cases, just as jurors are 

in a regular court trial.

(7) Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, 

and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United 

States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, 

Judgment and Punishment, according to Law. 

COMMENTARY: 

If an impeached person is found guilty, she or he can be removed from office and 

forbidden to hold federal office again. The Senate cannot impose any other punishment, but 

the person may also be tried in regular courts. The Senate has convicted seven persons, all 

of them judges. All these men were removed from office, but only two of them were disqualified 

from holding any federal office.

Article 1

Section 4

ORGANIZATION OF CONGRESS

(1) The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall 

be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by 

Law make or alter such Regulations, [except as to the Places of chusing Senators.]

COMMENTARY: 

As long as state legislatures chose the Senators, it would not do to let Congress fix the 

place of choosing. This would have amounted to giving Congress the power to tell each state 

where to locate its capital. The words “except as to the places of choosing Senators” were set 

aside by the 17th Amendment.
50 

(2) The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, [and such Meeting shall be on the 

first Monday in December,] unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day. 

COMMENTARY: 

In Europe, monarchs could keep parliaments from meeting, sometimes for many years, 

simply by not calling them together. This is the reason for the requirement that the Congress of 

the United States must meet at least once a year. The 20th Amendment changed the date of 

the opening day of the session to January 3, unless Congress sets another date by law.

Article 1

Section 5

(1) Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own 

Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller 

Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of 

absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. 

COMMENTARY: 

Each house determines if its members are constitutionally qualified and have been properly 

elected. In judging the qualifications of its members, each house may consider only the age, 

citizenship, and residence requirements set forth in the Constitution. In acting on motions to 

expel a member, however, either house of Congress may consider other matters bearing on that 

member’s fitness for office. Discussion and debate can go on whether a quorum is present or 

not, as long as a quorum is present for the final vote.

(2) Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for 

disorderly Behaviour; and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

COMMENTARY: 

Each house makes its own rules. For example, the House of Representatives puts strict 

time limits on debate to speed up business. It is much more difficult to end debate in the 

Senate. By Senate rules, a Senator may speak as long as he or she wishes unless the Senate 

votes for cloture, a motion to end debate. On most matters, cloture requires a vote of 60 

Senators, or three-fifths of the total Senate membership. Either house can expel one of its 

members by a two-thirds vote.

(3) Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the 

same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays 

of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those 

Present, be entered on the Journal.

COMMENTARY: 

The House Journal and the Senate Journal are published at the end of each session of 

Congress. They list all the bills and resolutions considered during the session, as well as every 

vote. All messages from the President to Congress also are included.
51

Of more importance, the Congressional Record is published daily and includes verbatim 

transcripts of the debates.

(4) Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, 

adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses 

shall be sitting.

Article 1

Section 6

(1) The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to 

be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all 

Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their 

Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from 

the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any 

other Place. 

COMMENTARY: 

The privilege of immunity (freedom from arrest) while going to and from congressional 

business has little importance today. Members of Congress, like anyone else, may be arrested 

for breaking the law. They may be tried, convicted, and sent to prison.

Congressional immunity from charges of libel and slander remains important. Libel is an 

untrue written statement that damages a person’s reputation. Slander is a spoken statement 

that does so. Immunity under the speech and debate clause means that members of Congress 

may say whatever they wish in connection with congressional business without fear of being 

sued. This immunity extends to anything said by members during debate, in an official report, 

or while voting.

(2) No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be 

appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been 

created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no 

Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during 

his Continuance in Office.

COMMENTARY: 

These provisions keep members of Congress from creating jobs to which they can later be 

appointed, or while serving in Congress from raising salaries of jobs they hope to hold in the 

future, and from holding office in the other branches of the government.

In 1909, Senator Philander C. Knox resigned from the Senate to become Secretary of State. 

But the salary of the Secretary of State had been increased during Knox’s term as Senator. In 

order that Knox might accept the post, Congress withdrew the salary increase for the period of 

Knox’s unfinished term.
52 

Article 1

Section 7

(1) All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the 

Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

COMMENTARY: 

Tax bills must originate in the House. The tradition that tax laws should originate in the 

lower house of the legislature comes from England. There, the lower house — the House 

of Commons — is more likely to reflect the people’s wishes because the people elect its 

members. They do not elect the upper house, the House of Lords. In the United States, since 

the adoption of the 17th Amendment, this rule has little importance because the people elect 

both the Senate and the House. In addition, the Senate can amend a tax bill to such an extent 

that, in effect, it rewrites the whole measure.

(2) Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, 

before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; If he approve 

he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it 

shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed 

to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass 

the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall 

likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. 

But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the 

Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each 

House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays 

excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner 

as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which 

Case it shall not be a Law.

COMMENTARY: 

A bill passed by Congress goes to the President for the President’s signature. If the 

President disapproves the bill, he has 10 days not counting Sundays to return it to the chamber 

which originated it with a statement of the objections. This action is called a veto. Congress 

can pass a law over the President’s veto by a two-thirds vote of each house of those members 

present. The President can also let a bill become a law without signing it merely by letting 10 

days pass. But a bill sent to the President during the last 10 days of a session of Congress 

cannot become a law unless it is signed. If a bill the President dislikes reaches the President 

near the end of the session, the bill may simply be held unsigned. When Congress adjourns, 

the bill is killed. This practice is known as a pocket veto.

(3) Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of 

Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented 

to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be 
53

approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate 

and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the 

Case of a Bill.

Article 1

Section 8

POWERS GRANTED TO CONGRESS

The Congress shall have Power

(1) To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for 

the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and 

Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

COMMENTARY: 

Duties are taxes on goods coming into the United States. Excises are taxes on sales, use, 

or production, and sometimes on business procedures or privileges. For example, corporation 

taxes, cigarette taxes, and amusement taxes are excises. Imposts is a general tax term that 

includes both duties and excises.

(2) To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;

(3) To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several 

States, and with the Indian Tribes;

COMMENTARY: 

This section, called the commerce clause, gives Congress some of its most important 

powers. The Supreme Court has interpreted commerce to mean not only trade but also all 

kinds of commercial activity. The Supreme Court has ruled that “commerce among the several 

states” — interstate commerce — includes not only transactions across state boundaries but 

also any activity that affects commerce in more than one state. The power to regulate this 

commerce is the power to encourage, promote, protect, prohibit, or restrain it. As a result, 

Congress can pass laws and provide funds to improve waterways, to enforce air safety 

measures, and to forbid interstate shipment of certain goods. It can regulate the movement of 

people, of trains, of stocks and bonds, and television signals, as well as the Internet. Congress 

has made it a federal crime to flee across state lines from state or local police to use interstate 

commerce for a wide variety of crimes. It also has forbidden people who operate interstate 

facilities or who serve interstate passengers to treat customers unfairly because of race, 

gender, national origins, old age, or physical disability.

(4) To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of 

Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
54 

(5) To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of 

Weights and Measures; 

COMMENTARY: 

From this section, along with the section that allows the Congress to regulate commerce 

and to borrow money, Congress gets its right to charter national banks and to establish the Federal 

Reserve System.

(6) To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the 

United States;

COMMENTARY: 

Securities are government bonds.

(7) To establish Post Offices and post Roads;

(8) To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to 

Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; 

COMMENTARY: 

Books, music, photographs, videotape, digital video discs (DVD), and films may be 

copyrighted under this rule.

(9) To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;

COMMENTARY: 

Examples of federal courts “inferior to the Supreme Court” include the United States 

district courts and United States Courts of Appeals.

(10) To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences 

against the Law of Nations;

COMMENTARY: 

Congress, rather than the states, has jurisdiction over crimes committed at sea.

(11) To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning 

Captures on Land and Water;

COMMENTARY: 

Only Congress can declare war. However, the President, as Commander-in-Chief, 

has engaged the United States in wars without a formal declaration of war by Congress. 

Undeclared wars include the Korean War (1950-1953), the Vietnam War (1957-1975), and the 

Gulf Wars (1991, 2003). 

Letters of marque and reprisal are documents that authorize private vessels to attack 

enemy shipping. They are no longer issued.
55

(12) To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a 

longer Term than two Years;

(13) To provide and maintain a Navy;

(14) To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;

(15) To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress 

Insurrections and repel Invasions;

COMMENTARY: 

Congress has given the President power to decide when a state of invasion or insurrection

(uprising) exists. At such times, the President can call out the state militia, now known as the 

National Guard, as well as the regular armed forces.

(16) To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such 

Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the 

States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia 

according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

COMMENTARY: 

The federal government helps the states maintain the militia, also known as the National 

Guard. Until 1916, the states controlled the militia entirely. That year, the National Defense Act 

provided for federal funding of the Guard and for drafting the Guard into national service under 

certain circumstances.

(17) To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not 

exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance 

of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like 

Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which 

the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other 

needful Buildings; — And

COMMENTARY: 

This section makes Congress the legislative body not only for the District of Columbia, but 

for federal property on which forts, naval bases, arsenals, and other federal works or buildings 

are located.

(18) To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the 

foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the 

United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

COMMENTARY: 

This section, the famous “necessary and proper” clause, allows Congress to deal with 
56 

many matters not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. This flexibility helps explain why 

the Constitution is one of the oldest written constitutions and why it has needed so few 

formal amendments.

Article I

Section 9

POWERS FORBIDDEN TO CONGRESS

(1 ) The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall 

think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand 

eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not 

exceeding ten dollars for each Person.

COMMENTARY: 

This paragraph refers to the slave trade. Dealers in slaves, as well as some slaveholders, 

wanted to make sure that Congress could not stop anyone from bringing African slaves into the 

country before the year 1808. That year, Congress did ban the importation of slaves.

(2) The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases 

of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. 

COMMENTARY: 

A writ of habeas corpus is a court order that commands officials who have a person in 

custody to bring the person into court. The officials must explain to the judge why the person 

is being restrained. If their explanation is unsatisfactory, the judge can order the prisoner 

released.

(3) No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

COMMENTARY: 

A bill of attainder is an act passed by a legislature to punish a person without trial. An ex 

post facto law is one that makes criminal an act that was not illegal when the act was committed. 

This also includes an act that retroactively increases the punishment for a criminal act.

(4) No Capitation, [or other direct,] Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or 

Enumeration herein before directed to be taken. 

COMMENTARY: 

A capitation is a tax collected equally from everyone. It is also called a head tax or poll 

tax. The Supreme Court held that this section prohibits an income tax, but the 16th Amendment 

set aside the effect of the court’s decision.
57

(5) No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State. 

COMMENTARY: 

In this sentence, exported means sent to other states or to foreign countries. The Southern 

states feared that the new government would tax their exports and that their economies would 

suffer as a result. This sentence forbids such a tax. However, Congress can prohibit shipment 

of certain items, as well as regulate the conditions of their shipment.

(6) No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of 

one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to 

enter, clear, or pay Duties in another.

COMMENTARY: 

Congress cannot make laws concerning trade that favor one state over another. 

Ships going from one state to another need not pay taxes to do so.

(7) No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by 

Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money 

shall be published from time to time.

COMMENTARY: 

Government money cannot be spent without the consent of Congress. Congress must 

provide for the issuance of financial statements from time to time.

(8) No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any 

Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of 

any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or 

foreign State. 

COMMENTARY: 

Congress cannot give anyone a title of nobility, such as countess or duke. Federal officials 

may not accept a gift, office, payment, or title from a foreign country without the consent of 

Congress.

Article I

Section 10

POWERS FORBIDDEN TO THE STATES

(1) No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque 

and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a 

Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing 

the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. 
58 

(2) No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports 

or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it’s inspection Laws: and 

the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be 

for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the 

Revision and Controul of the Congress.

COMMENTARY: 

Without the consent of Congress, a state cannot tax goods entering or leaving the state 

except for small fees to cover the cost of inspection.

(3) No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or 

Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or 

with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger 

as will not admit of delay. 

COMMENTARY: 

Only the federal government has the power to make treaties or negotiate with foreign 

countries.

Article II

Section 1

THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH

(1)The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. 

He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, 

chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows 

(2) Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number 

of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State 

may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an 

Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

COMMENTARY:

This section establishes the Electoral College, a group of people chosen in each state in a 

manner that the state legislature decides. All states now provide that the voters choose these 

electors. These electors in turn elect the President and Vice President.

(3) [The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, 

of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 
59

And they shall make a List of all the Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; 

which List they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the Government of 

the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, 

in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the 

Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the 

President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number of Electors appointed; and if 

there be more than one who have such Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the 

House of Representatives shall immediately chuse by Ballot one of them for President; and if 

no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest on the List the said House shall in like 

Manner chuse the President. But in chusing the President, the Votes shall be taken by States, 

the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum for this Purpose shall consist 

of a Member or Members from two thirds of the States, and a Majority of all the States shall 

be necessary to a Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person having 

the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice President. But if there should 

remain two or more who have equal Votes, the Senate shall chuse from them by Ballot the 

Vice President.] 

COMMENTARY: 

The 12th Amendment changed this procedure for electing the President and Vice President.

(4) The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they 

shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States.

(5) No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of 

the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any 

person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, 

and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

(6) In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or 

Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on 

the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, 

Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall 

then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or 

a President shall be elected.

COMMENTARY: 

On August 9, 1974, President Richard M. Nixon resigned as Chief Executive and was 

succeeded by Vice President Gerald R. Ford. Until then, only death had ever cut short the 

term of a President of the United States. The 25th Amendment provides that the Vice President 

succeeds to the presidency if the President becomes disabled, and specifies the conditions 

applying to succession.
60 

(7) The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which 

shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been 

elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United 

States, or any of them. 

COMMENTARY:

The Constitution made it possible for a poor person to become President by providing a 

salary for that office. The President’s salary cannot be raised or lowered during his or her term 

of office. The Chief Executive may not receive any other pay from the federal government or 

the states, but of course is provided with many services.

(8) Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or 

Affirmation: — “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of 

President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend 

the Constitution of the United States.”

COMMENTARY: 

The Constitution does not say who shall administer the oath to the newly elected President. 

President George Washington was sworn in by Robert R. Livingston, then a state official in New 

York. After that it became customary for the Chief Justice of the United States to administer the 

oath. Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a justice of the peace, at his home in Vermont. 

Coolidge took the oath again before Justice Adolph A. Hoehling of the Supreme Court of the 

District of Columbia.

Article II

Section 2

(1) The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and 

of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; 

he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive 

Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall 

have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in 

Cases of Impeachment.

COMMENTARY: 

The President’s powers as Commander-in-Chief are far-reaching. But even in wartime, the 

President must obey the law of the land.

(2) He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, 

provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with 

the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and 

Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose 
61

Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: 

but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think 

proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 

COMMENTARY: 

The framers of the Constitution intended that in some matters the Senate should serve as 

an advisory body for the President, somewhat as the House of Lords advised the monarch in 

Great Britain.

The President can make treaties and appoint various government officials. But two-thirds 

of the Senators present must approve before a treaty is confirmed. Also, high appointments 

require approval of more than half the Senators present.

(3) The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen 

during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire 

at the End of their next Session. 

COMMENTARY: 

When the Senate is not in session, the President can make temporary appointments to 

offices that require Senate confirmation.

Article II

Section 3

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and 

recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; 

he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case 

of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn 

them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public 

Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all 

the Officers of the United States. 

COMMENTARY: 

The President gives a State of the Union message to Congress each year. Presidents 

George Washington and John Adams delivered their messages in person. For more than 

100 years after that, most Presidents sent a written message, which was read in Congress. 

President Woodrow Wilson delivered his message in person, as did Franklin D. Roosevelt and 

all Presidents after Roosevelt. Famous messages to Congress include the Monroe Doctrine 

and President Wilson’s “Fourteen Points.”

During the 1800s, Presidents often called Congress into session. Today, Congress is in 

session most of the time. No President has ever had to adjourn Congress.

The responsibility to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” puts the President 

at the head of law enforcement for the national government. Every federal official, civilian or 

military, gets his or her authority from the President.
62 

Article II

Section 4

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from 

Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and 

Misdemeanors.

Article III

Section 1

THE JUDICIAL BRANCH

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such 

inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both 

of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour; and shall, 

at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during 

their Continuance in Office.

COMMENTARY: 

The Constitution gives federal courts considerable independence from both the Congress 

and the President. The guarantee that judges shall hold office during “good behavior” means 

that, unless they are impeached and convicted, they can hold office for life. This protects 

judges from any threat of dismissal by the President who appointed them, or by any other 

President during their lifetime. The rule that a judge’s salary may not be reduced protects the 

judge against pressure from Congress, which could otherwise threaten to fix the salary so low 

that the judge could be forced to resign.

Article III

Section 2

(1) The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this 

Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, 

under their Authority; — to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and 

Consuls; — to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction; — to Controversies to 

which the United States shall be a Party; — to Controversies between two or more States; 

— [between a State and Citizens of another State;] — between Citizens of different States, 
63

— between Citizens of the same State claiming Lands under Grants of different States, and 

between a State, or the Citizens thereof, and foreign States, [Citizens or Subjects.]

COMMENTARY: 

The right of the federal courts to handle “cases arising under this Constitution” is the basis 

of the Supreme Court’s right to declare laws of Congress unconstitutional. This right of “judicial 

review” was established by Chief Justice John Marshall’s historic decision in the case of 

Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

The 11th Amendment set aside the phrase ”between a state and citizens of another state” 

and removes from federal courts suits by citizens against a state.

(2) In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in 

which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the 

other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to 

Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. 

COMMENTARY: 

The statement that the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases affecting foreign 

governments and their representatives and in cases to which a state government is one of the 

parties means that cases of this kind go directly to the Supreme Court. In other cases, the 

Supreme Court has appellate jurisdiction. This means that the cases are tried first in a lower 

court and may come up to the Supreme Court for review if Congress has authorized an appeal 

for such kinds of cases. Congress cannot take away or modify the original jurisdiction of the 

Supreme Court, but it can take away the right to appeal to that Court or fix the conditions one 

must meet to present an appeal.

(3) The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial 

shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not 

committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by 

Law have directed.

Article III

Section 3

(1) Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in 

adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of 

Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in 

open Court. 

COMMENTARY: 

No person can be convicted of treason against the United States unless he or she 

confesses in open court, or unless two witnesses testify that he or she has committed a 

treasonable act. Talking or thinking about committing a treasonable act is not treason.
64 

(2) The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder 

of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the 

Person attainted. 

COMMENTARY: 

The phrase “no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood” means that the family 

of a traitor does not share the guilt. Formerly, an offender’s family could also be punished.

Article IV*

Section 1

RELATION OF THE STATES TO EACH OTHER

Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and 

judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe 

the Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings shall be proved, and the 

Effect thereof. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section requires the states to honor one another’s laws, records, and court rulings.

Article IV

Section 2

(1) The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens 

in the several States. 

COMMENTARY: 

This means that citizens traveling from state to state are entitled to all the privileges and 

immunities that automatically go to citizens of those states. Some privileges, such as the right 

to vote, do not automatically go with citizenship, but require a period of residence and perhaps 

other qualifications. The word “citizen” in this provision does not include corporations.

* Much of this article was taken word for word from the old Articles of Confederation.
65

(2) A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from 

Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the 

State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of 

the Crime. 

COMMENTARY: 

If a person commits a crime in one state and flees to another state, the governor of the 

state in which the crime was committed can demand that the fugitive be handed over. The 

process of returning an accused person is called extradition. In a few cases, a governor has 

refused to extradite. The governor might do so because the crime was committed many years 

ago, or because he or she believes the accused would not get a fair trial in the other state.

(3) [No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into 

another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such 

Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or 

Labour may be due.] 

COMMENTARY: 

A “person held to service or labor” was a slave or an indentured servant (a person bound 

by contract to serve someone for several years). No one is now bound to servitude in the 

United States, so this part of the Constitution, being superseded by the 13th Amendment, no 

longer has any force.

Article IV

Section 3

FEDERAL-STATE RELATIONS

(1) New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be 

formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the 

Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of 

the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

COMMENTARY: 

New states cannot be formed by dividing or joining existing states without the consent 

of the state legislatures and Congress. During the Civil War (1861-1865), Virginia fought for 

the Confederacy, but people in the western part of the state supported the Union. After West 

Virginia split from Virginia, Congress accepted the new state on the ground that Virginia 

had rebelled.
66 

(2) The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations 

respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this 

Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any 

particular State. 

Article IV

Section 4

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of 

Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the 

Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic 

Violence. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section requires the federal government to make sure that every state has a 

“republican form of government.” A republican government is one in which the people elect 

representatives to govern. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress, not the courts, must 

decide whether a state government is republican. If Congress admits a state’s Senators 

and Representatives, that action indicates that Congress considers the state’s government 

republican.

The legislature or governor of a state can request federal aid in dealing with riots or 

other internal violence. But the President does not need a state’s consent to send federal 

forces, including military ones, to enforce federal laws. During the Pullman strike of 1894, 

the federal government sent troops to Illinois even though the state governor did not want them. 

In 1957 President Eisenhower nationalized the Arkansas National Guard in order 

to remove it from the command of Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus and sent in the United 

States Army to help implement the orders of a federal district judge that the Little Rock 

schools be racially desegregated.

Article V

AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall 

propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two 

thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in 

either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when 

ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in 

three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the 
67

Congress; Provided [that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand 

eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth 

Section of the first Article; and] that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its 

equal Suffrage in the Senate. 

COMMENTARY: 

Amendments may be proposed by a two-thirds vote of each house of Congress or by a 

national convention called by Congress at the request of two-thirds of the states. To become 

part of the Constitution, amendments must be ratified (approved) by the legislatures of threefourths of the states or by conventions in three-fourths of the states.

The framers of the Constitution purposely made it hard to put through an amendment. 

Congress has considered more than 9,000 amendments, but it has proposed only 33 and 

submitted them to the states. Of these, only 27 have been ratified. Only one amendment, the 

21st, was ratified by state conventions. All the others were ratified by state legislatures.

The Constitution sets no time limit during which the states must ratify a proposed 

amendment. But the courts have held that amendments must be ratified within a “reasonable 

time” and that Congress decides what is reasonable, as it did when it allowed the promulgation 

of the 27th Amendment on May 7,1992 — more than 202 years after it was proposed. Since 

the early 1900s, most proposed amendments have included a requirement that the necessary 

ratification be obtained within seven years.

Article VI

NATIONAL DEBTS

(1)All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of 

this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as 

under the Confederation.

COMMENTARY: 

This section promises that all debts and obligations made by the United States before the 

adoption of the Constitution would be honored.

SUPREMACY OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

(2) This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance 

thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United 

States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound 

thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding. 
68 

COMMENTARY: 

This section, known as the supremacy clause, has been called the linchpin of the 

Constitution — that is, the part that keeps the entire structure from falling apart. It means 

simply that when state laws conflict with national laws, the national laws are superior. It also 

means that, to be valid, a national law must be in conformity with the Constitution.

(3) The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several 

State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of 

the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but 

no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under 

the United States. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section requires that both federal and state officials give supreme allegiance to the 

Constitution of the United States rather than to the constitution of any state. This section 

also forbids any kind of religious test for holding federal office. This provision applies 

only to the national government, but the 14th Amendment applies the same rule to state 

and local governments.

Article VII

RATIFYING THE CONSTITUTION

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the 

Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same.

(The following statement reflects copyist’s corrections to the original document.)

The Word, “the,” being interlined between the seventh and eighth Lines of the first 

Page, The Word “Thirty” being partly written on an Erazure in the fifteenth Line of 

the first Page, The Words “is tried” being interlined between the thirty second and 

thirty third Lines of the first Page and the Word “the” being interlined between the 

forty third and forty fourth Lines of the second Page.

Attest William Jackson Secretary
69

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of 

September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the 

Independence of the United States of America the Twelfth 

In Witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, 

Go. Washington - Presid.t and deputy from Virginia

New Hampshire

John Langdon

Nicholas Gilman

Massachusetts

Nathaniel Gorham

Rufus King 

Connecticut

Wm. Saml. Johnson

Roger Sherman

New York

Alexander Hamilton 

New Jersey

Wil: Livingston

David Brearley.

Wm. Paterson. 

Jona: Dayton 

Pennsylvania

B Franklin

Thomas Mifflin

Robt Morris

Geo. Clymer

Thos. FitzSimons 

Jared Ingersoll 

James Wilson 

Gouv Morris

Delaware

Geo: Read

Gunning Bedford jun

John Dickinson 

Richard Bassett 

Jaco: Broom 

Maryland

James McHenry

Dan of St Thos. Jenifer 

Danl Carroll

Virginia 

John Blair—

James Madison Jr.

North Carolina

Wm. Blount

Richd. Dobbs Spaight

Hu Williamson

South Carolina

J. Rutledge

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Charles Pinckney

Pierce Butler

Georgia

William Few

Abr Baldwin
70 

ARTICLES in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of 

America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the several states, pursuant to the fifth 

article of the original Constitution.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 1

FREEDOM OF RELIGION, SPEECH, AND THE PRESS; RIGHTS OF ASSEMBLY AND PETITION

Congress shall make no law respecting an 

establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom 

of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition 

the Government for a redress of grievances. 

COMMENTARY: 

Many countries have made one religion the established (official) church and support it 

with government funds. This amendment forbids Congress to set up or in any way provide for 

an established church. It has been interpreted to forbid government endorsement of or aid to 

religious doctrines. In addition, Congress may not pass laws limiting worship, speech, or the 

press, or preventing people from meeting peacefully. Congress also may not keep people 

from asking the government for relief from unfair treatment. The Supreme Court has interpreted 

the 14th Amendment as applying the First Amendment to the states as well as to the federal 

government.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 2

RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the 

security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment has been interpreted in two ways. Some people believe it gives ordinary 

citizens the right to possess firearms. Others believe it only gives each state the right to 

maintain its own militia.

AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION 

OF THE UNITED STATES

ANNOTATED
71

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 3

HOUSING OF SOLDIERS

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered 

in any house, without the consent of the Owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be 

prescribed by law. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment grew directly out of an old complaint against the British, who had forced 

people to take soldiers into their homes.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 4

SEARCH AND ARREST WARRANTS

The right of the people to be secure in their 

persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not 

be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or 

affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things 

to be seized. 

COMMENTARY: 

This measure does not forbid legal authorities to search, to seize goods, or to arrest people. 

It simply requires that in most circumstances the authorities obtain a search warrant from a 

judge by showing the need for it. The Supreme Court has held that evidence obtained in 

violation of the Fourth Amendment may not be admitted in evidence in a criminal trial.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 5

RIGHTS IN CRIMINAL CASES

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, 

or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except 

in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of 

War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in 
72 

jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against 

himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall 

private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

COMMENTARY: 

A capital crime is one punishable by death. An infamous crime is one punishable by 

death or imprisonment. This amendment guarantees that no one has to stand trial for such a 

federal crime unless a grand jury has indicted (accused) him or her. A grand jury is a special 

group of people selected to decide whether there is enough evidence against a person to hold 

a trial. Persons cannot be put in double jeopardy (tried twice) for the same offense by the 

same government. But they may be tried a second time if a jury cannot agree on a verdict, 

if a mistrial is declared for some reason, or if they request a new trial. The amendment also 

guarantees that persons cannot be forced to testify against themselves.

The due process clause, the statement that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, 

or property “without due process of law” is one of the most important provisions of the 

Constitution. The same words are in the 14th Amendment as restrictions on the power of the 

states. The phrase reflects the idea that a person’s life, liberty, and property are not subject to 

the complete discretion of government officials. This idea can be traced back to the Magna 

Carta, which provided that the English king could not imprison or harm a person “except by the 

lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”

The Supreme Court has applied the due process clauses — there is one in the 14th 

Amendment that limits the states — to widely different situations. Until the mid-1900s, the 

court used the due process clauses to strike down laws that prevented people from using their 

property as they wished. Today, the courts use the due process rule to strike down laws that 

interfere with personal liberty.

The amendment also forbids the government to take a person’s property even for public 

use without fair payment. The government’s right to take property for public use is called 

eminent domain. Governments use it to acquire land for highways, schools, and other public 

facilities, but they must pay the owners just compensation.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 6

RIGHTS TO A FAIR TRIAL 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall 

enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 

wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously 

ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be 

confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining 

witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

COMMENTARY: 

A person accused of crime must have a prompt, public trial by an open-minded jury. 

The requirement for a speedy and public trial grew out of the fact that some political trials 
73

in England had been delayed for years and then were held in secret. Accused individuals 

must be informed of the charges against them and must be allowed to meet the witnesses 

against them face to face. Otherwise, innocent persons may be punished if a court allows 

the testimony of unknown witnesses to be used as evidence. This amendment guarantees 

that individuals on trial can face and cross-examine those who have accused them. Finally, 

accused persons must have a lawyer to defend them if they want one. If a criminal defendant is 

unable to afford a lawyer, the Supreme Court has held that one must be appointed to represent 

the accused individual.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 7

RIGHTS IN CIVIL CASES

In Suits at common law, where the value in 

controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no 

fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than 

according to the rules of the common law. 

COMMENTARY: 

The Sixth Amendment provides for jury trials in criminal cases. The Seventh Amendment 

provides for such trials in civil suits where the amount contested exceeds $20. The amendment 

applies only to federal courts. But most state constitutions also call for jury trials in civil as well 

as criminal cases.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 8

BAILS, FINES, AND PUNISHMENTS

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive 

fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 

COMMENTARY: 

Bails, fines, and punishment must be fair and humane. In the case of Furman v. Georgia, 

the Supreme Court ruled in 1972 that capital punishment, as it was then imposed, violated this 

amendment. The court held that the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment because 

it was not applied fairly and uniformly. After that decision, many states adopted new capital 

punishment laws designed to meet the Supreme Court’s objections. The court has ruled that 

the death penalty may be imposed in capital cases if certain standards are applied to guard 

against arbitrary and capricious application of the penalty.
74 

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 9

RIGHTS RETAINED BY THE PEOPLE

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain 

rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

COMMENTARY: 

Some people feared that the listing of some rights in the Bill of Rights would be interpreted 

to mean that other rights not listed were not protected. This amendment was adopted to 

prevent such a misinterpretation.

The Bill of Rights

Amendment 10

POWERS RETAINED BY THE STATES AND THE PEOPLE 

The powers not delegated to the United States by 

the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, 

or to the people. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment was adopted to reassure people that the national government would not 

swallow up the states. It confirms that the states or the people retain all powers not given to 

the national government. For example, the states have the authority over such matters as 

marriage and divorce.

Amendment 11

LAWSUITS AGAINST STATES

This amendment was proposed on March 4, 1794, and ratified on February 7, 1795.

The Judicial power of the United States shall 

not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against 

one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any 

Foreign State. 
75

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment makes it impossible for a citizen of one state to sue another state in 

federal court. The amendment resulted from the 1793 case of Chisholm v. Georgia, in which 

a man from South Carolina sued the state of Georgia over an inheritance. Georgia argued 

that it could not be sued in federal court, but the Supreme Court ruled that the state could be. 

Georgia then led a movement to add this amendment to the Constitution. However, individuals 

can still bring actions against state authorities in federal court to prevent these authorities from 

depriving them of their Constitutional rights.

Amendment 12

ELECTION OF THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT

This amendment was proposed on December 9, 1803, and ratified on July 27, 1804.

The Electors shall meet in their respective states, 

and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 

inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person 

voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and 

they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted 

for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and 

certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 

to the President of the Senate; — The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the 

Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be 

counted; — The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the 

President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no 

person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding 

three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose 

immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken 

by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose 

shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the 

states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose 

a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, [before the fourth day of 

March next following,] then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the 

death or other constitutional disability of the President — The person having the greatest 

number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority 

of the whole number of Electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the 

two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for 

the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of 
76 

the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to 

the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment provides that members of the Electoral College, called electors, vote 

for one person as President and for another as Vice President. The amendment resulted 

from the election of`1800. At that time, each elector voted for two men, not saying which he 

wanted for President. The man who received the most votes was to become President, and 

the runner-up Vice President. Thomas Jefferson, the presidential candidate of what was to 

become the Democratic Party, and Aaron Burr, the vice presidential candidate of the same 

party, received the same number of electoral votes. The tie threw the election into the House 

of Representatives, controlled by the opposition party, the Federalist. The House finally 

chose Jefferson but took so long that people feared it would fail to choose a President before 

Inauguration Day. The House has chosen one other President — John Quincy Adams 

in 1825.

Amendment 13

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY

This amendment was proposed on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865.

SECTION 1

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, 

except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall 

exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

COMMENTARY: 

President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 had freed the slaves in 

the Confederate States still in rebellion. This amendment completed the abolition of slavery in 

the United States.

SECTION 2

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
77

Amendment 14

CIVIL RIGHTS

This amendment was proposed on June 13,1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868.

SECTION 1

All persons born or naturalized in the United 

States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 

State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the 

privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any 

person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within 

its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

COMMENTARY: 

The principal purpose of this amendment was to make former slaves citizens of both 

the United States and the state in which they lived and to protect them from state-imposed 

discrimination. The terms of the amendment clarify how citizenship is acquired. State 

citizenship is a by-product of national citizenship. By living in a state, every U.S. citizen 

automatically becomes a citizen of that state as well. All persons naturalized (granted 

citizenship) according to law are U.S. citizens. Anyone born in the United States is also a 

citizen regardless of the nationality of his parents, unless they are diplomatic representatives of 

another country or enemies during a wartime occupation. Such cases are exceptions because 

the parents are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. The amendment does not 

grant citizenship to Native Americans living on reservations, but Congress has passed a law 

that did so.

The phrase “due process of law” has been construed to forbid the states to violate most of 

the rights the Bill of Rights protects from abridgment by the national government. It has also 

been interpreted as protecting other rights by its own force. The statement that a state cannot 

deny anyone “equal protection of the laws” has provided the basis for many Supreme Court 

rulings on civil rights. For example, the court in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education) declared 

public school racial segregation to be a denial of equal protection under the laws. Since then 

the Supreme Court has held that any form of government-sanctioned racial segregation is 

unconstitutional.

SECTION 2

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective 

numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, [excluding Indians not 

taxed.] But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President 

and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and 

Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of 

the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the 
78 

United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, 

the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of 

such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age 

in such State.

COMMENTARY: 

This section proposes a penalty for states that refused to give the vote in federal elections 

to all adult male citizens. States that restricted voting could have had their representation in the 

House of Representatives reduced. This penalty was never imposed. The section has been set 

aside by the 19th and 26th amendments.

SECTION 3

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and 

Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any 

State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of 

the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial 

officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 

insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. 

But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section is of historical interest only. Its purpose was to keep federal officers who joined 

the Confederacy from becoming federal officers again.

SECTION 4

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts 

incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or 

rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume 

or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 

States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations 

and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section ensured that the Union’s Civil War debt would be paid, but voided all debts run 

up by the Confederacy. The section also said that former slave owners would not be paid for 

slaves who were freed.

SECTION 5

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of 

this article.
79

Amendment 15

AFRICAN AMERICAN SUFFRAGE 

This amendment was proposed on February 26, 1869, and ratified on February 3, 1870.

SECTION 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote 

shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, 

color, or previous condition of servitude.

COMMENTARY: 

African Americans who had been slaves became citizens under the terms of the 14th 

Amendment. The 15th Amendment prohibits states from denying citizens the right to vote 

because of race. Some southern states were able to deny African Americans the right to 

vote despite this Amendment until the 1960s, when Congress passed laws to enforce the 

Amendment and the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional practices and legal procedures 

whose effect had been to circumvent it.

SECTION 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Amendment 16

INCOME TAXES

This amendment was proposed on July 12,1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect 

taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several 

States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

COMMENTARY: 

In 1894, Congress passed an income tax law, but the Supreme Court declared it to be a 

direct tax that had to be apportioned among the states and thus made it impossible to levy. 

This amendment authorized Congress to levy such a tax without apportionment.
80 

Amendment 17

DIRECT ELECTION OF SENATORS

This amendment was proposed on May 13, 1912, and ratified on April 8, 1913.

(1)The Senate of the United States shall be 

composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and 

each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications 

requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

(2) When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive 

authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the 

legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments 

until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

(3) This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any 

Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment took the power of electing Senators from the state legislature and places 

it in the hands of the voters of the state.

Amendment 18

PROHIBITION OF LIQUOR

This amendment was proposed on December 18,1917, and ratified on January 16, 1919.

SECTION 1

[After one year from the ratification of 

this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the 

importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory 

subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited. 

SECTION 2

The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by 

appropriate legislation. 
81

SECTION 3

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within 

seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.]

COMMENTARY: 

This is the prohibition amendment, which forbade people to make, sell, or transport liquor. 

It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.

Amendment 19

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

This amendment was proposed on June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920.

The right of citizens of the United States to vote 

shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. 

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

COMMENTARY: 

Amendments that would have given women the right to vote were introduced in Congress 

one after another for more than 40 years before this one was finally passed.

Amendment 20

TERMS OF THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS

This amendment was proposed on March 2,1932, and ratified on January 23, 1933.

SECTION 1

The terms of the President and Vice President 

shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives 

at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this 

article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
82 

SECTION 2

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at 

noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day. 

SECTION 3

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall 

have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been 

chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall 

have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President 

shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a 

President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act 

as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person 

shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified. 

SECTION 4

The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from 

whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice 

shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from 

whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have 

devolved upon them. 

SECTION 5

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of 

this article.

SECTION 6

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from 

the date of its submission. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment, called the lame duck amendment, moves the date that the newly elected 

Presidents and members of Congress take office closer to election time. A lame duck is an 
83

official who continues to serve though not re-elected. Before the amendment came into force, 

Congressmen and presidents defeated in the November elections continued to hold office until 

the following March.

Amendment 21

REPEAL OF PROHIBITION

This amendment was proposed on February 20, 1933, and ratified on December 5, 1933.

SECTION 1

The eighteenth article of amendment to the 

Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

SECTION 2

The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United 

States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is 

hereby prohibited. 

SECTION 3

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within 

seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment simply repeals the 18th Amendment.
84 

Amendment 22

LIMITATION OF PRESIDENTS TO TWO TERMS

This amendment was proposed on March 24, 1947, and ratified on February 27, 1951.

SECTION 1

No person shall be elected to the office of the 

President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted 

as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected 

President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall 

not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by 

the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, 

or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from 

holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

SECTION 2

This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the 

Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from 

the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment provides that no person can be elected to President more than twice. 

No one who has served as President for more than two years of someone else’s term can 

be elected more than once. One President can hold office for no more than 10 years. The 

amendment was supported by people who thought President Franklin D. Roosevelt should 

not have served four terms. No other President had run for election to more than two 

consecutive terms.

Amendment 23

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

This amendment was proposed on June 16, 1960, and ratified on March 29, 1961.

SECTION 1

The District constituting the seat of government 

of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: 
85

A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators 

and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a state, 

but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those 

appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of 

President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the 

District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment. 

SECTION 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment allows citizens of the District of Columbia to vote in presidential elections. 

However, they have no members of Congress to vote for.

Amendment 24

POLL TAXES

This amendment was proposed on August 27, 1962, and ratified on January 23, 1964.

SECTION 1

The right of citizens of the United States to vote 

in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or 

Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged 

by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

SECTION 2

The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment forbids a state from making voters pay a poll or head tax before they can 

vote in a national election. The Supreme Court has interpreted the 14th Amendment equal 

protection clauses as forbidding the imposition of a poll tax in state elections. The term poll tax

does not mean a tax on voting. It comes from the old English word poll, meaning head. Some 

states once used such taxes to keep poor people and African Americans from voting.
86 

Amendment 25

PRESIDENTIAL DISABILITY AND SUCCESSION

This amendment was proposed on July 6, 1965, and ratified on February 10, 1967.

SECTION 1

In case of the removal of the President from office 

or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. 

SECTION 2

Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate 

a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of 

Congress. 

COMMENTARY: 

This section provides for filling a vacancy in the vice presidency. In 1973, Gerald R. Ford 

became the first person ever chosen Vice President under the terms of the amendment. He 

was nominated by President Richard M. Nixon after Vice President Spiro T. Agnew resigned. In 

1974, Nixon resigned and Ford became President. Nelson A. Rockefeller then became Vice 

President under the new procedure. For the first time, the United States had both a President 

and Vice President who had not been elected to their office. Before this amendment came into 

force, vacancies in the vice presidency remained unfilled until the next presidential election.

SECTION 3

Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the 

Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to 

discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written 

declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President 

as Acting President.

COMMENTARY: 

This section provides that the Vice President succeeds to the presidency if the President 

becomes disabled. Vice President George H. W. Bush became the first acting President. He 

officially held the position eight hours on July 13, 1985, when President Ronald Reagan had 

cancer surgery.
87

SECTION 4

Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive 

departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the 

President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their 

written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his 

office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as 

Acting President.

Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and 

the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, 

he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority 

of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress 

may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and 

the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is 

unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the 

issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, 

within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in 

session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by twothirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties 

of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; 

otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

Amendment 26

SUFFRAGE FOR 18-YEAR-OLDS

This amendment was proposed on March 23, 1971, and ratified on July 1, 1971.

SECTION 1

The right of citizens of the United States, 

who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United 

States or any State on account of age.
88

SECTION 2

The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment forbids states from denying the vote to citizens because of their age if they 

are 18 years of age or older.

Amendment 27

CONGRESSIONAL SALARIES

This amendment was proposed on September 25, 1789, and ratified on May 7, 1992.

No law, varying the compensation for the 

services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of 

Representatives shall have intervened. 

COMMENTARY: 

This amendment, originally proposed by James Madison, was approved by Congress in 

1789 and submitted to the states for ratification, but after 200 years had not been ratified by 

the requisite 38 states. Public criticism of congressional pay raises led the state of Michigan to 

ratify this amendment on May 7, 1992, providing the 38th ratification. This amendment ensures 

that if Senators or members of the House of Representatives vote to raise their own pay, only 

members of the subsequent Congresses (which may include incumbents as well as newly 

elected congressmen) will benefit from the raise. 3
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Bureau of International Information Programs

2004

http://usinfo.state.gov/

At the time the Constitution was 

written, the nation consisted 

of 13 states, symbolized by the 

13 stars in the nation’s first 

flag (top). During subsequent 

decades, a new star was added 

to the flag for each new state 

admitted to the Union, so that 

today the flag contains 50 stars 

for the 48 contiguous states 

plus Alaska and Hawaii. The 13 

alternating red and white stripes, 

symbolizing the original states, 

have remained unchanged.

J.W. PELTASON, editor of the 

introduction and explanatory notes 

for this publication, is Professor of 

Political Science Emeritus, University 

of California, Irvine, as well as 

President Emeritus, University 

of California. He is co-author of 

the books Understanding the 

Constitution and Government by the 

People.

Art Director: Min-Chih Yao

Picture Editor: George P. Miller

Picture Research: Linda Christenson, 

Bernard Reilly

Managing Editor: Mildred Sola Neely

CREDITS: 

Cover, Min-Chih Yao;

Credits from left to right are 

separated by semicolons, from top to 

bottom by dashes.

Page 3: Library of Congress — Henry 

Francis Dupont, The Winterthur 

Museum. 4: Library of Congress; 

5: © 2004 American Numismatic 

Association — Courtesy The 

Winterthur Museum; 

6: National Portrait Gallery, 

Smithsonian Institution/Art 

Resource, NY; 

7: The National Archives — Library 

of Congress — The American 

Revolution: A Picture Source Book, 

Dover Publications, 1975 (2); 

8: Mead Art Museum, Amherst 

College, Bequest of Herbert L. Pratt 

(Class of 1895); 

9: The American Revolution: 

A Picture Source Book, Dover 

Publications, 1975 (2), middle, 

Library of Congress; 

10: Library of Congress; 

11: Library of Congress — Collection 

of The New-York Historical Society; 

12: Rare Book and Manuscript 

Library, Columbia University 

— Courtesy American Antiquarian 

Society; 

13: National Portrait Gallery, 

Smithsonian Institution/Art 

Resource, NY; 

14: Courtesy Gunston Hall; 15,16,17: 

Library of Congress (4); 

18: Library of Congress — The 

John Carter Brown Library at Brown 

University; 

32: The National Archives;

44: Library of Congress —The 

National Archives (4). 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Bureau of International Information Programs

http://usinfo.state.gov/
book spine

ABOUT AMERICA: THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA With Explanatory Notes