Complete Bookshop/CompleteWorkshop.iso/history/26amends/26amends.txt

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         AMENDMENTS TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION

1st Amendment
    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.

2nd Amendment
    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.

3rd Amendment
    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.

4th Amendment
    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.

5th Amendment
    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.

6th Amendment
    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.

7th Amendment
    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.

8th Amendment
    Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines
imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.

9th Amendment
    The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by
the people.

10th Amendment
    The powers not delegated to 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.

11th Amendment
    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.

12th Amendment
    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 the 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 a majority,
then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding
three, on the list of those voted for a President, the House of
Representative 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] the Vice President shall act as President,
as in case of 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, form 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; 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.

13th Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

14th Amendment
    Sect. 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 any person within its jurisdiction
the equal protection of the laws.
    Sect. 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 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.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

15th Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

16th Amendment
    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.

17th Amendment
    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 appointment 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.

18th Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have
concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
    Sect. 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 of the date of the submission
hereof to the States by Congress.

19th Amendment
    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.

20th Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every
years, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of
January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th
day of October following the ratification of this article.
    Sect. 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it
shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by
three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the
date of its submission.

21st Amendment
    Sect. 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the
Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 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.

22d Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 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.

23rd Amendment
    Sect. 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 Representative 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 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.
    Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

24th Amendment
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.

25th Amendment
    Sect. 1. In case of the removal of the President from
office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall
become President.
    Sect. 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.
    Sect. 3. Whenever the President transmits to the
President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speakers 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.
    Sect. 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 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.

26th Amendment
    Sect. 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 by any State on account of
age.
    Sect. 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.