Article 1 - The Legislative
Branch
Section 1 - The
Legislature
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
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 choose 3, Massachusetts
8, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 1, Connecticut 5, New
York 6, New Jersey 4, Pennsylvania 8, Delaware 1, Maryland 6,
Virginia 10, North Carolina 5, South Carolina 5 and Georgia
3].
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 choose
their Speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of
impeachment.
Section 3 - The
Senate
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 choose 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 States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according
to law.
Section 4 - Organization of
Congress
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
place of choosing 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 - Membership, Rules, Journals,
Adjournment
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 behavior, 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 –
Compensation
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.
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 increased
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 - Revenue Bills, Legislative
Process, Presidential
Veto
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 re-passed 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 - Powers Granted to
Congress
The Congress shall have power:
To lay and collect taxes,
duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the
common defense 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;
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 offenses against the law of
nations;
To declare war, grant letters of manqué 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;
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, dockyards, 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 - Powers Forbidden to
Congress
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.
Section 10 - Powers Forbidden to the
States
No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance,
or confederation; grant letters of manqué 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 its 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 control 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 2 - The Executive
Branch
Section 1 - The
President
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 House of
Representatives shall immediately choose 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 choose 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. 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 choose from them by
ballot the Vice President.]
The Congress may determine the time of choosing
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 - Civilian Power over Military,
Cabinet, Pardon Power, Appointments
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 offenses 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 - State of the Union, Convening
Congress
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 –
Disqualification
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 3 - The Judicial
Branch
Section 1 - Judicial
Powers
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 behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their
services, a compensation, which shall not be diminished during
their continuance in office.
Section 2 - Trial by Jury, Original
Jurisdiction, Jury Trials
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.
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
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 4 - Relation of the States to Each
Other
Section 1 - Each State to Honor all
others
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.
Section 2 - State Citizens,
Extradition
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 labor 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 labor, but
shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or
labor may be due.]
Section 3 - New
States
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 - Republican
Government
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 5 - 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 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 6 - National Debts, Supremacy of the
National Government
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, anything 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 7 - 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.
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.
George Washington--President and deputy
from Virginia
New
Hampshire
John Langdon
Nicholas Gilman
Massachusetts
Nathaniel Gorham
Rufus King
Connecticut
William Samuel Johnson
Roger Sherman
New
York
Alexander Hamilton
New
Jersey
William Livingston
David Brearley
William Paterson
Jonathon Dayton
Pennsylvania
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Mifflin
Robert Morris
George Clymer
Thomas FitzSimons
Jared Ingersoll
James Wilson
Gouverneur Morris
Delaware
George Read
Gunning Bedford, Jr.
John Dickinson
Richard Bassett
Jacob Broom
Maryland
James McHenry
Daniel of St. Thomas
Jenifer
Daniel Carroll
Virginia
John Blair
James Madison, Jr.
North
Carolina
William Blount
Richard Dobbs Spaight
Hugh Williamson
South
Carolina
John Rutledge
Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney
Charles Pinckney
Pierce Butler
Georgia
William Few
Abraham Baldwin
Attest: William Jackson,
Secretary
Amendments to
the Constitution
Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Speech, and
the Press; Rights of Assembly and Petition (ratified December 15,
1791)
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 2 - Right to Bear Arms (ratified
December 15, 1791)
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.
Amendment 3 - Housing of Soldiers
(ratified December 15, 1791)
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 4 - Search and Arrest
Warrants (ratified December 15, 1791)
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 5 - Rights in Criminal Cases,
Compensation for Taking Property (ratified December 15,
1791)
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
offense 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 6 - Right to a Speedy
Trial (ratified December 15, 1791)
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
defense.
Amendment 7 -
Rights in Civil Cases (ratified December 15,
1791)
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.
Amendment 8 -
Cruel and
Unusual Punishment (ratified December 15,
1791)
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted.
Amendment 9 -
Rights
Retained by the People (ratified December 15,
1791)
The enumeration in the Constitution, of
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others
retained by the people.
Amendment 10 -
Powers Retained by the States and the People (ratified
December 15, 1791)
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 11 -
Lawsuits Against States (ratified 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.
Amendment 12 - Choosing the
President and Vice President (ratified June 15,
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 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 13 - Abolition of Slavery
(ratified December 6,
1865)
- 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.
- Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights
(ratified July 9, 1868)
- 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.
- 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
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this
article.
Amendment 15 - Black Suffrage (ratified
February 3, 1870)
- 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.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment 16 - Income Taxes
(ratified 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.
Amendment 17 - Direct Election of
Senators (ratified April 8, 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 branches
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 18 - Prohibition of Liquor
(ratified January 16, 1919). Repealed by Amendment 21, December 5,
1933
- 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.
- The Congress and the
several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.
- 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 19 - Woman Suffrage
(ratified 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.
Amendment 20 - Terms of
the President and Congress (ratified January 23,
1933)
- 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 third day of January, of the year in which such terms would
have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of
their successors shall then begin.
- The Congress shall
assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin
at noon on the third day of January, unless they shall by law
appoint a different day.
- 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.
- 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.
- Sections 1 and 2
shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the
ratification of this article.
- 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 21 - Repeal of Prohibition
(ratified December 5,
1933)
- The eighteenth
article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is
hereby repealed.
- 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.
- The 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.
Amendment 22 - Limitation of President to
Two Terms (ratified February 27,
1951)
- 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.
- 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 day of its submission to the states by the
Congress.
Amendment 23 - Suffrage in the District
of Columbia (ratified March 29,
1961)
- 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.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment 24 - Poll Tax Barred (ratified
January 23, 1964)
- 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.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment 25 - Presidential Disability
and Succession (ratified February 10,
1967)
- In case of the
removal of the President from office or of his death or
resignation, the Vice President shall become
President.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 two-thirds 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
(ratified July 1, 1971)
- 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 by any state on account of age.
- The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment 27 -
Congressional Salaries (ratified 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.
