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Amendments (One through Twenty-Six)
[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 quarters 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 ~reexamined 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 sex 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 3rd 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 3rd 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.
22nd 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
his 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.