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Amendments |
Proposal date |
Enactment date |
Full text |
| 1st The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law "respecting an establishment of religion", impeding the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble |
Freedom of religion Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion. Freedom of religion is considered by many, of speech Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak without censorship and/or limitation. The synonymous term freedom of expression is sometimes used to indicate not only freedom of verbal speech but any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in, of the press Freedom of the press is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials. While such freedom mostly implies the absence of interference from an overreaching state, its preservation may be sought through constitutional or other legal protections, to assemble Freedom of assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests. The right to freedom of association is recognized as a human right, a political freedom and a civil liberty, and to petition The right to petition in the United States is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, and specifically prohibits Congress from abridging "the right of the people...to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Although often overlooked in favor of other more famous freedoms and sometimes taken for granted, many |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 2nd The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights that protects a right to keep and bear arms. The Second Amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the Bill of Rights. The American Bar Association has observed that there is more disagreement and less understanding about |
Enumerates the right to keep and bear arms The right to keep and bear arms, often referred as the right to bear arms or the right to have arms, is the assertion that people have a personal right to weapons for individual use, or a collective right to bear arms in a militia, or both. In this context, "arms" refers to a variety of weapons and armor and to "bear arms" |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 3rd The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. It was introduced on September 5, 1789, and then three-fourths of the states ratified this as well as 9 other amendments on December 15, 1791. It prohibits, in peacetime, the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner's consent. It |
No forced quartering of soldiers in private houses during peacetime.
In a time of war, Congress can pass a law stating that soldiers should be quartered.
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September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 4th The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the Bill of Rights which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The amendment specifically also requires search and arrest warrants be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is |
Interdiction of unreasonable searches and seizures Search and seizure is a legal procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems whereby police or other authorities and their agents, who suspect that a crime has been committed, do a search of a person's property and confiscate any relevant evidence to the crime; search warrant is required to search persons or property. |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 5th The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215. For instance, grand juries and the phrase "due process" both trace their origin to the |
Indictments In the common law legal system, an indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In those jurisdictions which retain the concept of a felony, the serious criminal offence would be a felony; those jurisdictions which have abolished the concept of a felony often substitute the concept of an indictable offence, i.e. an; due process Due process is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law. Due process holds the government subservient to the law of the land, protecting individual persons from the state; self-incrimination Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. Self-incrimination can occur either directly or indirectly: directly, by means of interrogation where information of a self-incriminatory nature is disclosed; indirectly, when information of a self-incriminatory nature is disclosed voluntarily; double jeopardy Double jeopardy is a procedural defense that forbids a defendant from being tried twice for the same crime on the same set of facts. At common law a defendant may plead autrefois acquit or autrefois convict , meaning the defendant has been acquitted or convicted of the same offense. If this issue is raised, evidence will be placed before the court,, and rules for eminent domain Eminent domain , compulsory purchase (United Kingdom, New Zealand, Ireland), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Australia) or expropriation (South Africa and Canada's common law systems) is the inherent power of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary. |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 6th The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which sets forth rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. The Supreme Court has applied the protections of this amendment to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment |
Rights to a fair The right to fair trial is seen as an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. A trial in these countries that is deemed unfair will typically be restarted, or its verdict quashed and speedy Speedy trial refers to one of the rights is guaranteed by the United States Constitution to defendants in criminal proceedings. The right to a speedy trial, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment, is intended to ensure that defendants are not subjected to unreasonably lengthy incarceration prior to a fair trial.[citation needed] Violations of the public Public trial or open trial is a trial open to public, as opposed to the secret trial. The term should not be confused with show trial trial A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges make all decisions, to notice of accusations, to confront the accuser, to subpoenas A subpoena is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:, to counsel The legal system in England uses the term counsel as an approximate synonym for a barrister-at-law ', and may apply it to mean either a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, the body of barristers engaged in a case. It seems uncertain as to whether the term also applies to a solicitor advocate. Some judges and lawyers apply the term |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 7th The Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, codifies the right to a jury trial in certain civil trials. Unlike most of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court has not incorporated the amendment's requirements to the states under the Fourteenth Amendment |
Right to trial by jury A jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact which are then applied by a judge. It is distinguished from a bench trial, in which a judge or panel of judges make all decisions in civil cases A lawsuit, or "suit in law", is a civil action brought before a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have received damages from a defendant's actions, seeks a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint. If the plaintiff isn't successful, judgment will be given in the |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 8th The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is the part of the United States Bill of Rights which prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishments. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that this amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause applies to the states. The phrases |
No excessive bail Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail . In some cases bail money may be returned at the end of the trial, if all court appearances are made, no matter whether the person is found or fines, or cruel and unusual punishment Cruel and unusual punishment is a phrase describing criminal punishment which is considered unacceptable due to the suffering or humiliation it inflicts on the condemned person |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 9th Amendment IX to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution |
Unenumerated rights Unenumerated rights are sometimes defined as legal rights inferred from other legal rights that are officiated in a retrievable form codified by law institutions, such as in written constitutions, but are not themselves expressly coded or "enumerated" among the explicit writ of the law. Alternative terminology sometimes used are: natural |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 10th The Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. The Tenth Amendment restates the Constitution's principle of federalism by providing that powers not granted to the national government nor prohibited to the states by the Constitution of the United States are reserved to |
Limits the powers of the federal government The federal government of the United States is the central government entity established by the United States Constitution, which shares sovereignty over the United States of America with the governments of the individual U.S. states. For official purposes in U.S. courts, the government is sued as the United States of America, and is referred to to only those specifically granted to it by the constitution. |
September 25, 1789 |
December 15, 1791 |
Full text |
| 11th The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was passed by the Congress on March 4, 1794 and was ratified on February 7, 1795, deals with each state's sovereign immunity from being sued in federal court by someone of another state or country. This amendment was adopted in response to, and in order to overrule, the U.S. Supreme |
Immunity of states from suits from out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders. Lays the foundation for sovereign immunity Sovereign immunity, or crown immunity, is a type of immunity that in common law jurisdictions traces its origins from early English law. Generally speaking it is the doctrine that the sovereign or state cannot commit a legal wrong and is immune from civil suit or criminal prosecution; hence the saying, the kings can do no wrong. In many cases,. |
March 4, 1794 |
February 7, 1795 |
Full text |
| 12th The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides the procedure by which the President and Vice President are elected. It replaced Article II, Section 1, Clause 3, which provided the original procedure by which the Electoral College functioned. Problems with this procedure were demonstrated in the elections of 1796 and 1800. The |
Revises presidential election The Electoral College consists of the popularly elected representatives who formally elect the President and Vice President of the United States. Since 1964, there have been 538 electors in each presidential election. Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution specifies how many electors each state is entitled to have and that each state' procedures |
December 9, 1803 |
June 15, 1804 |
Full text |
| 13th The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was adopted on December 6, 1865, and was then declared in a proclamation of Secretary of State William H. Seward on December 18. It was the first of the Reconstruction |
Abolishes slavery Slavery in the United States was a form of unfree labor which existed as a legal institution on American soil before the founding of the United States in 1776, and remained a legal feature of American society until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. It had its origins with the first English and involuntary servitude Involuntary servitude is a United States legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion. While laboring to benefit another occurs in the condition of slavery, involuntary servitude does not necessarily connote the complete lack of freedom experienced in chattel slavery;, except as punishment for a crime. |
January 31, 1865 |
December 6, 1865 |
Full text |
| 14th The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was adopted after the Civil War as one of the Reconstruction Amendments on July 9, 1868 |
Defines citizenship Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities. "Active citizenship" is the philosophy that citizens should work towards the betterment of their community through economic participation, public , volunteer work, and other such efforts to improve life for all citizens. In this vein, and deals with post–Civil War Union blockade – Eastern – Western – Lower Seaboard – Trans-Mississippi – Pacific Coast issues. |
June 13, 1866 |
July 9, 1868 |
Full text |
| 15th The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits each government in the United States from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" (i.e., slavery). It was ratified on February 3, 1870 |
Prohibits the denial of suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. |
February 26, 1869 |
February 3, 1870 |
Full text |
| 16th |
Allows federal income tax |
July 12, 1909 |
February 3, 1913 |
Full text |
| 17th |
Direct election of senators |
May 13, 1912 |
April 8, 1913 |
Full text |
| 18th |
Prohibition of alcohol (Repealed by Twenty-first Amendment) |
December 18, 1917 |
January 16, 1919 |
Full text |
| 19th |
Federal recognition of women's suffrage |
June 4, 1919 |
August 18, 1920 |
Full text |
| 20th |
Term commencements for Congress (January 3) and the President (January 20).
This amendment is also known as the "lame duck amendment".
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March 2, 1932 |
January 23, 1933 |
Full text |
| 21st |
Repeals the Eighteenth Amendment |
February 20, 1933 |
December 5, 1933 |
Full text |
| 22nd |
Limits the president to two terms, or a maximum of 10 years. (ie a Vice President fulfilling the last two years of a President who left office, and then being elected for another two terms after said two years) |
March 24, 1947 |
February 27, 1951 |
Full text |
| 23rd |
Representation of Washington, D.C. in the Electoral College |
June 16, 1960 |
March 29, 1961 |
Full text |
| 24th |
Prohibition of the restriction of voting rights due to the non-payment of poll taxes |
September 14, 1962 |
January 23, 1964 |
Full text |
| 25th |
Presidential succession |
July 6, 1965 |
February 10, 1967 |
Full text |
| 26th |
Voting age nationally established at 18 (see suffrage) |
March 23, 1971 |
July 1, 1971 |
Full text |
| 27th |
Variance of congressional compensation |
September 25, 1789 |
May 7, 1992 |
Full text |
Before an amendment can take effect, it must be proposed to the states by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and ratified by three-fourths of the states or by three-fourths of conventions thereof, the method of ratification being determined by Congress at the time of proposal. To date, no convention for proposing amendments has been called by the states, and only once has the convention method of ratification been employed.
Six amendments proposed by Congress have failed to be ratified by the appropriate number of states' legislatures. Four of these amendments are still technically pending before state lawmakers—the other two have expired by their own terms.