The Constitution and its Amendments

Amendment 2

"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." -Long a source of controversy due to its somewhat convoluted grammatical structure, which makes it unclear whether the right to possess weapons is or is not dependent upon service in the militia, the Second Amendment guarantees citizens some kind of fundamental right to bear arms. Recent Supreme Court cases have tended to broaden the amendment's meaning, suggesting that there is an individual right to bear arms, independent of service (or lack thereof) in the state militia.

Article 1, Section 7

Clause 1 "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills." -All tax and tariff legislation must originate in the House of Representatives, although the Senate retains its normal power to amend any bill sent to it from the House. In modern practice, this requirement isn't very significant. Clause 2 "Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a Law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such Reconsideration two thirds of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by Yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for and against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the President within ten Days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their Adjournment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law." -How a bill becomes a law: Both houses of Congress have to pass it, then send it to the president. If the president signs it, it becomes law. If the president vetoes it, it goes back to Congress, where a two-thirds vote can override his veto. Or, if the president simply does nothing, the bill becomes law without his signature after ten days. (Not counting Sundays, of course.) If Congress adjourns less than ten days after sending the president a bill, he can apply a so-called "pocket veto" simply by refusing to sign it; the normal provision by which a bill becomes law even without presidential signature after ten days does not take effect if Congress adjourns before the ten days are up. Clause 3 "Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill." -Joint resolutions of Congress are special measures passed under special circumstances, unlike regular bills of law. They're still supposed to be sent to the president for his signature, however; a joint resolution signed by the president has the force of law. A simple resolution of Congress not sent to the president for his signature does not have the force of law.

Article 1, Section 5

Clause 1 "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide." -The House and the Senate are given the power to judge the qualifications of their own members. In the case of a disputed Senate election, for example, in which both candidates claim to have won the vote, it is ultimately up to the Senate itself to decide which candidate gets the seat. -A majority of either chamber's membership is required to be present to constitute a quorum. Congress can continue to conduct business with less than a quorum present, but any member can then issue a "quorum call," requiring either that a majority of the members actually show up or that the house takes a temporary adjournment. Clause 2 "Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member." -The House and the Senate have the power to set their own rules of parliamentary procedure. Over the course of 200+ years of American history, those rules have grown quite complex. The House and the Senate also have the power to kick out their own members for bad acts; expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. Clause 3 "Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal." -Both chambers of Congress must publish an official record of their proceedings. The Congressional Record is published daily while either house is in session, documenting all official activity on the floor of either house. Clause 4 Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting." -Neither the House nor the Senate can go out on extended vacation while the other remains in business, unless the other chamber approves. The idea here is to prevent one house from obstructing the other's legislation simply by refusing to show up to work.

Article 4, Section 3

Clause 1 "New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States 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 Framers of the Constitution planned for the future growth of the country, setting up a system to allow new states formed on the western frontier to enter the Union as equals of the original states. Clause 2 "The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State." -Any western territories that haven't yet become states fall under the direct control of the Congress.

Amendment 12

"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 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." -The presidential election of 1800 turned into a complete mess in the Electoral College, demonstrating serious weaknesses in the Constitution's original design of presidential elections. In 1800—one of the most important elections in American history—Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent president, John Adams. However, Jefferson managed to finish in an exact Electoral College tie with Aaron Burr, who was supposed to be his own vice-presidential running mate. The problem was that the Constitution's original design for presidential elections called for each member of the Electoral College to cast two votes, for his top two candidates for the presidency. When all the ballots were tallied, whoever finished first would become president, and whoever finished second would become vice president. But this system didn't account for the development of political parties and partisan presidential/vice-presidential tickets. In 1800, Jefferson's supporters in the Electoral College each voted for Jefferson and Burr; when the two men finished in a tie, it meant that the entire election was thrown into the House of Representatives, which could have voted for anyone. In the end, Jefferson's great political rival Alexander Hamilton convinced members of his own party to defer to the will of the people and allow Jefferson to become president, but any manner of mischief could have occurred. (Burr was rumored to be working to steal the presidency out from under Jefferson's nose.) In order to prevent such a debacle from happening again, the Twelfth Amendment split the balloting for the presidency from that for the vice-presidency; under the Twelfth Amendment, Electors now cast separate ballots for president and vice president.

Amendment 18

"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." -The Eighteenth Amendment was one of the most notorious failures of attempted social engineering in American history. Many Progressive reformers believed that alcohol was the root of much, if not all, evil in American society, and sought to end that evil by simply banning the production and sale of liquor. Prohibition against alcohol led, instead, to a huge black market in bootleg liquor, with the profits of illegal booze-selling flowing to infamous gangsters like Al Capone. After less than 15 years of Prohibition, Congress passed the Twenty-first Amendment, fully overturning the Eighteenth, in 1933.

Article 6, Section 1

"All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation." -The new US government established by the Constitution promised to take on all the debts racked up by the older, weaker national government of the Articles of Confederation. This signaled that the passage of the Constitution wasn't going to be used an excuse for the national government to shirk its debts.

Article 1, Section 1

"All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives." -Congress, and only Congress, has the power to make laws. -Congress is a bicameral legislative body—that is, it's divided into two chambers, the House and the Senate.

Amendment 14, Section 1

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." -The second of the three "Civil War Amendments," the Fourteenth Amendment is probably the most important amendment added to the Constitution at any time since the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. A Congress dominated by Radical Republicans passed the amendment specifically to protect against the threat that white southerners, defeated in the Civil War, would figure out how to use the powers of their state governments to effectively re-enslave recently liberated blacks by passing racially discriminatory laws. (Ironically, the failure of Reconstruction after 1876 led more or less exactly to this result, as the Fourteenth Amendment largely failed to protect black rights during the long Jim Crow Era.) While the amendment was passed with the rights of recently freed slaves specifically in mind, it was written in more universal terms; the Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection has since been invoked by all kinds of different groups of citizens seeking to ensure equal treatment under the law. -Anyone born on American soil is guaranteed full American citizenship. -No state can strip any of its residents of the full privileges of American citizenship. -All citizens are guaranteed "due process of law," which means that states cannot pass arbitrary or unfair laws. -All citizens are guaranteed "equal protection of the laws," which means that states cannot discriminate against particular groups of citizens. These broad guarantees of citizens' rights form (together with the Bill of Rights) the heart of American civil liberties and civil rights law.

Amendment 1

"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." -The First Amendment is one run-on sentence that enshrines five of the most essential liberties guaranteed by American democracy: the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government. The First Amendment is the core of all civil rights and civil liberties law in the United States.

Amendment 8

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." -The Eighth Amendment returns to the themes of the Fifth and Sixth, targeting potential abuses of the criminal justice system. The Eighth bans "cruel and unusual punishments" for crimes, and also prohibits "excessive" bail and fines. What exactly is the real-world meaning of "cruel and unusual" and "excessive", though? Courts have been arguing about that for a long time.

Article 4, Section 1

"Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general Laws prescribe the Manner in which such Acts, Records, and Proceedings shall be proved, and the Effect thereof." -Each state has to recognize the laws, records, and court rulings of the other states.

Article 2, Section 3

"He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States." -The president is required to report to Congress on "the State of the Union"; over time, this requirement has taken the shape of a formal "State of the Union Address" delivered every January to a joint meeting of both houses of Congress. -The president can call Congress into special session when it's out on recess if he thinks there is urgent business the Congress needs to deal with. -The president has to "faithfully execute" the laws of the United States. -The president has to grant commissions to all military officers of the United States.

Amendment 20, Section 3

"If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President 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 Twentieth Amendment also sought to resolve some ambiguity in the Constitution regarding what to do in a hypothetical scenario in which the winner of a presidential election dies before his inauguration day, or in which no candidate wins the presidency prior to the beginning of the term. (No such scenario has ever occurred in real life, before or after the passage of the Twentieth Amendment.)

Amendment 7

"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." -Civil cases (that is, non-criminal cases involving a dispute between private parties) heard in federal courts are guaranteed trial by jury if the amount of money in dispute is greater than $20.

Amendment 6

"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." -The Sixth Amendment, like the Fifth, focuses on preventing possible abuses of the criminal justice system. The Sixth guarantees accused criminals the right to a "speedy and public" trial by jury. It also gives defendants the right to know what charges are being made against them, to cross-examine hostile witnesses, and be represented by a lawyer in court.

Amendment 25

"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. -The Twenty-fifth Amendment is essentially a housekeeping measure, passed to clean up some ambiguities in Article II's provisions for the presidential succession. If the president dies or resigns or is removed from office, the vice president takes over. If the vice president dies or resigns or is removed from office, the president can choose a new VP, subject to confirmation by Congress. If the president submits written notice that he is no longer able to carry out the duties of his office, for whatever reason, the VP takes over. And last but not least, if the VP and a majority of the cabinet all agree that the president is no longer capable of carrying out the duties of his office, the VP can temporarily take over as Acting President. If the president disputes his removal from office, the Congress must decide whether the president should regain the powers of his office or whether the VP should remain in charge. Needless to say, this last circumstance has never happened in American history, and it would be pretty crazy if it ever did.

Amendment 3

"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." -The quartering of soldiers in citizens' houses may now seem like a bizarre thing to worry about or to include in a charter of liberties as important as the Bill of Rights, but quartering was a major issue in the years leading up the Revolutionary War, as American colonists resented the ill-behaved British troops they were forced to put up in their homes. In modern times, however, the Third Amendment has become more or less irrelevant.

Amendment 27

"No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of representatives shall have intervened." -The Twenty-seventh Amendment bars members of Congress from voting to give themselves a pay raise. They may vote to raise congressional pay, but such increases can take effect only for the next session of Congress.

Amendment 14, Section 3

"No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability." -The Fourteenth Amendment passed Congress at a moment when leading Republican lawmakers were feuding with President Andrew Johnson over how to treat the southern states of the former Confederacy in the aftermath of the Civil War. Johnson favored lenient treatment, while Congress wanted for the national government to impose stricter control over the states that had waged rebellion against it. Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment made it impossible for the president to allow the former leaders of the Confederacy to regain power within the US government after regaining full citizenship rights via blanket presidential pardon; instead, the amendment required a vote of a two-thirds majority of Congress itself to allow former Confederate leaders to regain the rights of American citizenship. Unless and until they received that two-thirds vote, former Confederate leaders were barred from voting in federal elections or holding federal office.

Amendment 22

"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 President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by 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." -The Constitution of 1787 set no term limits on the President of the United States. However, George Washington—the first president, and one who could have made himself president-for-life if he wanted to—voluntarily retired from office after two terms, establishing an informal two-term limit that lasted for nearly 150 years. Then Franklin D. Roosevelt got himself elected president four times in a row, serving from 1933 until he died in office in 1945. Most Americans at the time loved Roosevelt and were happy to have him stay in the White House to help guide the country through the difficult challenges of the Great Depression and World War II. After FDR was gone, however, many people began to think that the two-term limit really had been a good thing; it didn't seem healthy for a democracy to be led by the same individual for decades at a time. So the Twenty-second Amendment turned George Washington's example into official constitutional law; today no president can serve more than two full terms. (A vice president who serves out less than two years of his predecessor's term is allowed another two terms of his own, which means that it is theoretically possible for one individual to serve a maximum of ten years in the White House; in more normal circumstances, eight years is the max.)

Amendment 5

"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." -The Fifth Amendment offers a variety of protections to defendants in criminal proceedings. Most famously, it guarantees that no one can be forced to testify against himself; defendants in criminal cases can choose to remain silent, "pleading the Fifth," rather than offering testimony that might be used to convict them. The Fifth Amendment also requires that anyone put on trial first be formally indicted (charged with a crime) by a grand jury and guarantees that no one can be put on trial for the same crime twice (the so-called "double jeopardy" clause). Finally, most broadly and perhaps most importantly, the Fifth Amendment guarantees that no person can face criminal punishment without first receiving "due process of law."

Amendment 14, Section 2

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the 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." -The second section of the Fourteenth Amendment repealed the three-fifths clause (Article I, Section 2, Clause 3) of the original Constitution, which counted slaves as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of apportioning congressional representation. With slavery outlawed by the Thirteenth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment here clarified that all residents, of whatever race, should be counted as one whole person. This section also guaranteed that all male citizens over age 21, no matter their race, had a right to vote. (In practice, many southern states devised schemes to effectively deny blacks the vote during the Jim Crow era. Later amendments to the Constitution extended the right to vote to women and lowered the voting age to 18.)

Amendment 20, Section 5

"Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article." -The new political schedule created by the Twentieth Amendment took effect on 15 October 1933.

Amendment 20, Section 4

"The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them." -This is another obscure hypothetical that has never arisen as a problem in reality. But thanks to the Twentieth Amendment, Congress could do something about it if it did.

Amendment 20, Section 2

"The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day." -The amendment also moved up the beginning of each session of Congress to early January—the same day chosen as the new inauguration day for US Senators and Representatives.

Amendment 16

"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." -The first amendment to gain ratification in more than 40 years, the Sixteenth Amendment altered Article I, Section 9 in order to make it possible for Congress to implement the modern income tax system. Americans have been complaining about their income taxes ever since.

Article 5

"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." -The Constitution can be amended through a formal process established by the Framers in 1787. For an amendment to take effect, it first needs to be officially proposed by a two-thirds vote in both houses of Congress (or by two-thirds of all state legislatures), then it needs to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. This process is difficult but not impossible to complete; over the course of American history, 27 different amendments to the Constitution have been ratified. Article V includes two restrictions upon amendments, both rooted in the difficult compromises hammered out at the Constitutional Convention to solve controversies over slavery and representation. The first restriction, crossed out here because it is no longer operative, barred any amendments that would have outlawed the slave trade before 1808. And the second restriction ensures that no amendment can end the system of equal representation of all states, large and small, in the US Senate.

Amendment 23

"The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as 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." -Washington, DC, is not a state. The Electoral College, as designed in 1787, grants votes only to states. Therefore, until 1961, people who lived in the District of Columbia weren't able to vote for president. The Twenty-third Amendment gave DC residents a number of presidential electors (3) equal to those of the least populous state.

Amendment 11

"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." -The first post-Bill of Rights amendment to gain ratification, the Eleventh Amendment was a reaction against what many scholars view as the first Supreme Court decision of any great significance, the 1793 case of Chisholm v. Georgia. The issue in dispute was whether citizens of one state (or a foreign country) had a right to sue another state in federal court. Article III, Section 2 seemed to say yes, they did. In Chisholm v. Georgia, the Supreme Court agreed. But many states felt that such broad use of the federal court system to bring lawsuits against the various state governments would undermine the idea of federalism, shifting too much power from the states to the national government. Less than a year after the Supreme Court delivered its decision, Congress passed the Eleventh Amendment, which effectively overruled the court's decision by explicitly removing from federal court jurisdiction all cases in which the citizen of one state (or a foreign nation) sought to sue another state. Twelve of the fifteen states that then existed ratified the amendment within a year.

Article 2, Section 4

"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." -If the president does such a spectacularly bad job that the Congress finds him guilty of treason, bribery, or "other high crimes and misdemeanors," he can be impeached and removed from office before the end of his normal four-year term.

Article 7

"The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same." -Worried that they wouldn't be able to gain unanimous approval of all 13 states for the new Constitution, the Framers at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 decided that ratification by nine states should be enough to allow the new Constitution to take effect.

Amendment 17

"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution." -Under the original terms of the Constitution, US Senators were not elected by the people but were, instead, selected by the various state legislatures. By the turn of the 20th century, many of the reform-minded citizens of the Progressive Era believed that this system of "indirect election" led to corruption, as political machines manipulated Senate elections and some ambitious individuals sought to literally buy a seat in the Senate by bribing state legislators. The Seventeenth Amendment ended this system, allowing direct election of US Senators by popular vote.

Article 6, Section 3

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." -All government officials, elected and appointed, must swear an oath to support the Constitution of the United States. However, that oath need not be religious in nature, and the government cannot require its officials to pass any test of religious affiliation to take office. The ban on religious tests was included to ensure that the US government would remain secular in nature.

Article 4, Section 4

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence." -The federal government ensures that each state must maintain a representative form of government; no state is allowed to become a dictatorship. The federal government also promises to protect all the states from foreign military attack, and to come to the aid of the states if they are threatened by uprisings or insurrections.

Amendment 21, Section 1

"The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed." -The Twenty-first ended Prohibition by overturning the Eighteenth Amendment. The Eighteenth remains the only amendment ever repealed in its entirety; Prohibition really didn't work very well at all.

Amendment 9

"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Many of the Constitution's Framers originally opposed the inclusion of the Bill of Rights, worrying that by listing out certain rights, they would implicitly be saying that other rights did not exist at all. The Ninth Amendment seeks to ease those fears, stating explicitly that just because a certain right isn't listed in the Bill of Rights, that doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't exist.

Article 3, Section 1

"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." -Here the Constitution creates only the Supreme Court, granting it all "the judicial power of the United States." Thus the Supreme Court is the head of the judicial branch, just as the president is the head of the executive branch. This clause also gives Congress the power to create "inferior courts"—that is, lower-level federal courts that can serve under the Supreme Court to help the Supremes work though the federal caseload. In practice, over 200+ years of American history, Congress has passed laws establishing a large federal judiciary, comprising nearly 100 federal district courts, a dozen circuit Courts of Appeals, and several other types of special courts. Federal judges are appointed for life terms, and are paid salaries that cannot be cut during the time they remain on the bench.

Amendment 10

"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." -The Tenth Amendment establishes a strong principle of states' rights in the Constitution. Any powers not explicitly given to the federal government can be assumed to belong to the states, or directly to the people.

Amendment 24

"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 poll tax or other tax." -One measure used by Jim Crow-era southern states to deny the right to vote to blacks was a poll tax, a special fee charged for the right to vote. The Twenty-fourth Amendment, passed at the height of the civil rights movement, banned all such poll taxes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the 38 states that ratified the amendment were nearly all located in the North and West; of the states of the old Confederacy, only Florida, Tennessee, and Missouri were among the 38 who helped it take effect. The state legislatures of Virginia, North Carolina, and Alabama all ratified the amendment decades later, in a symbolic gesture. Six other states of the Deep South still haven't ratified it today.

Amendment 15

"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 third and final of the "Civil War Amendments," the Fifteenth Amendment sought to guarantee that former slaves would retain the right to vote by banning state suffrage laws that discriminated against any group of citizens on the basis of race. In practice, the amendment didn't work very well; by the 1880s, most southern states had figured out ways to prevent blacks from voting using laws that did not explicitly use race as the standard for disfranchisement. Most black citizens in the South only regained the right to vote, in practice, in the 1960s.

Amendment 19

"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." -The last and most consequential of the Progressive Era amendments to the Constitution, the Nineteenth Amendment granted women the right to vote. Nearly 150 years after Thomas Jefferson wrote that "all men are created equal," American women also gained the right to equal citizenship.

Amendment 26

"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 Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18. The amendment passed in 1971, near the end of the Vietnam War; the argument for lowering the voting age was that an 18-year-old who was old enough to serve and perhaps die in Vietnam ought to be old enough to vote at home.

Amendment 4

"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." -The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable harassment by the police. Police officers have no right to arrest people or to search through their personal property without first receiving a warrant (a court order approving the search or seizure upon probable cause of wrongdoing).

Amendment 20, Section 1

"The terms of the President and the 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." -When the Constitution was written in the late 18th century, things moved much more slowly than they do in modern times. Sailing across the Atlantic Ocean took several weeks; overland travel through the interior of the American continent was even slower. Long-distance communication meant sending letters through a rudimentary postal system or sending a messenger to hand-deliver important news. Therefore, the Framers of the Constitution designed a political calendar that left plenty of leeway for painfully slow travel and communication. Federal elections would thus be held in November, and the winners would be sworn into office in March—some five months later. Fast forward to the 1930s. Couriers have been replaced by the telegraph, telephone, and radio, making long-distance communication virtually instant. Horses and buggies have been replaced by railroads, automobiles, and airplanes. It no longer takes nearly half a year for the winners of elections to learn they have won and make their way to Washington, DC. And the long delay between elections and the inauguration of the winning candidates has become increasingly problematic, as the so-called "lame duck" politicians—those who haven't won a new term, but remain in office from November through March—have no political capital and thus find it almost impossible to get anything done. In 1932, this flaw in the political calendar is made all the more acute because the nation faces a grave crisis. The long winter of 1932-33—most of it occurring after Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover to win the presidency, but before Roosevelt's inauguration—happens to be the worst winter of the entire Great Depression. The defeated Hoover remains in the White House but does virtually nothing to deal with the crisis; Roosevelt, not yet in office, is likewise helpless to take action. Before Roosevelt even takes office (in March 1933), the states ratify the 20th Amendment, changing the nation's political calendar to prevent such a mess from happening again in the future. The amendment shortens the "lame-duck" period by two months by moving inauguration day, for both the president and the members of Congress, up from March to January.

Amendment 21, Section 2

"The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited." -Section 2 of the Twenty-first Amendment grants to the states the unique right to regulate the use and distribution of alcohol within their borders. This meant that states that continued to support Prohibition after 1933 retained the authority to impose rules stricter than those of the national government.

Amendment 14, Section 4

"The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void." -Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibited payment of any debt owed to the defunct Confederate States of America and also banned any payment to former slaveholders as compensation for the loss of their human property.

Article 6, Section 2

"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." -The Constitution is the "supreme law of the land"; no other law passed by any of the states can trump the Constitution. Interestingly, treaties ratified by the Senate also gain the status of "supreme law of the land." So if the terms of a treaty ever contradict state laws, the terms of the treaty take precedence.

Amendment 21, Section 3

"This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress." -Section 3 imposed a time limit for ratification; if three-quarters of the states hadn't ratified it within seven years, it would have become void. Fortunately for anyone who enjoys the occasional beer or glass of wine, it took the states only about seven months to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment.

Amendment 20, Section 6

"This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission." -The Eighteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Amendments all included a time limit for ratification. All were ratified within those time limits, however, and became law.

Preamble

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." -popular sovereignty (all government power derives only from the consent of the people) -"We the People" created this Constitution to establish a government (in Abraham Lincoln's famous words) "of the people, by the people, for the people."

Article 1, Section 10

Clause 1 "No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility." -Under the Constitution, only the federal government (not the various state governments) has the power to conduct foreign diplomacy or print money. And the states are barred from doing many of the same things that the federal government also can't do: they can't pass bills of attainder or ex post facto laws, they can't pass laws that break contracts, and they can't grant state-level titles of nobility. This clause is included mainly to ensure that the states don't start acting like independent countries, undermining the national government. Clause 2 "No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Control of the Congress." -Again, the states aren't independent nations, so they can't charge tariffs on imports from other states. Clause 3 "No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay." -The states aren't allowed to run their own armies or start their own wars.

Article 4, Section 2

Clause 1 "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." -States can't discriminate against the residents of other states. Clause 2 "A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime." -This clause establishes the principle of extradition, requiring states that capture fugitives from justice in other states to send them back to face trial. Clause 3 "No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due. -Another legacy of slavery, this is the infamous fugitive slave clause. Slaves who escaped into freedom in the North were required to be sent back to their owners in the South. The 13th Amendment banned slavery in the United States.

Article 1, Section 8

Clause 1 "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;" -The very first power given to Congress by the Constitution is the power to tax. Money is power, and in the governmental structure created by the Constitution, Congress—not the president—controls the money. -Congress also has the power to levy tariffs (taxes on imported goods) but it's not allowed to charge more for imports into one state than into another. The Framers of the Constitution probably put the tax power first on the list of Congress's enumerated powers because they were acutely aware that one of the biggest problems of the old Articles of Confederation was that its version of Congress did not have the power to tax, and thus didn't have the power to do much of anything at all. Clause 2 "To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;" -Congress is allowed to go into debt to pay for government programs and services. Deficit spending by the government was fairly rare in peacetime through much of American history, but has been quite common in recent decades. Clause 3 "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;" -Congress has the power to impose regulations on interstate and international business. This "interstate commerce clause" has been quite controversial in the history of constitutional law; for a long time, judges tended to read the clause narrowly, overturning federal laws they deemed focused mainly on regulating economic activity within states rather than between them. Since the 1930s, however, judges have tended to read the clause broadly, allowing the government to regulate all kinds of economic activity—by setting a national minimum wage, for example. Clause 4 "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;" -Congress has the power to set up a process for immigrants to become American citizens. (The idea that America is a "nation of immigrants" is thus embedded right in the Constitution.) -Congress has the power to set rules for hopelessly indebted people and businesses to declare bankruptcy. In 2005, Congress used that power to change bankruptcy law; it's now much harder for individuals to escape credit card debts by declaring bankruptcy. Clause 5 "To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;" -Congress controls the minting of money and (theoretically) sets its value. In practice, the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank in 1913 transferred most of the power over setting the value of the dollar to the Fed. Congress also gets to set standards of weights and measures; in the 1970s, this became controversial, as traditionalists in Congress blocked President Jimmy Carter's attempts to begin a switchover to the metric system. Clause 6 "To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;" Clause 7 "To establish Post Offices and post Roads;" -For most of the first century of American independence, the Post Office was by far the largest and most important organization within the federal government. Congress has the power to set up Post Offices and to build roads connecting them. Clause 8 "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;" -Congress has the power to set up a system of copyrights and patents, granting creative people the exclusive right to sell their creations. Clause 9 "To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;" -Congress has the power to set up lower-level federal courts that report to the Supreme Court. That court system has grown over time; today there are twelve circuit Courts of Appeals, plus 94 federal District Courts, plus dozens of other special courts. Clause 10 "To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;" -Congress has the power to punish pirates. Amazingly, after a period of hundreds of years when piracy seemed to be a thing of the past, in 2009 piracy once again became a hot topic when Somali pirates began targeting merchant ships off the Horn of Africa. Clause 11 "To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;" -This clause grants Congress one of its most important powers: the power to declare war. Congress, and only Congress, can officially do so. -This clause also grants Congress one of its more bizarre powers: the power to hire pirates to attack the nation's enemies. (That's what a "Letter of Marque" is... a letter that gives a pirate official permission to do his thing in the name of the national interest.) Clause 12 "To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;" -The Founding Fathers were really worried about the danger of standing armies, the kind of permanent professional armed forces that had, they felt, been used by the British monarchy to oppress them before the Revolution. So they carefully divided the power to control the military between the executive and legislative branches; the president is Commander-in-Chief but only Congress has the authority to pay (or not pay) for military actions. Further, Congress cannot fund military operations more than two years in the future. Clause 13 "To provide and maintain a navy;" Clause 14 "To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;" -Congress has the power to set rules for the behavior of the armed forces. From 1806-1951, those rules were contained in a law called the Articles of War. Since 1951, they have been contained within the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Any soldiers or sailors who violate those rules face court-martial. Clause 15 "To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;" -Congress has the power to call out the militia—organized units of citizen soldiers—to defend the nation from attack or armed rebellion. In modern times, the militia has been replaced by the National Guard. Clause 16 "To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;" -Control over the militia is divided between Congress and the state governments. If the militia is called into national service, Congress pays for it and governs its actions. The states, however, retain control over who serves as its officers and how its men are trained. These distinctions were probably more important in the 1790s than they are today. Clause 17 "To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;" -Congress has the power to set up a national capital of the United States that is outside the jurisdiction of any state. (Congress used this power to create Washington, DC, on swampland along the Potomac River that was originally part of Maryland.) -Congress also has ultimate authority over all federal military facilities, even if they're located within particular states. Clause 18 "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." -This, the so-called "elastic clause," is the basis for all of the legislative branch's implied powers (powers not explicitly listed in the Constitution but held to be legitimate because they are "necessary and proper" for the Congress to exercise the other powers that are listed here.) Over time, this clause has been used to justify a gradual expansion in the general power of Congress and the entire federal government.

Article 1, Section 2

Clause 1 "The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature." -Every two years, voters ("Electors") get a chance to cast ballots to determine who will represent them in the House of Representatives. -"Qualifications requisite" just means that each state must allow anyone who can legally vote in state elections also to vote for US Representative; the states aren't allowed to limit voting rights for US House elections to a small elite. Clause 2 "No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen." -Here are the job requirements for serving in the House: You need to be 25 years old, you need to have been a citizen for at least seven years, and you need to live in the state you want to represent in Congress. Clause 3 "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three." -This clause simply establishes that representation in the House is apportioned on the basis of population; that is, the more populous the state, the more seats it gets in the House. As you can see, in the First Congress of 1789, that meant that Virginia got ten seats and Massachusetts got eight, while Rhode Island and Delaware got just one each. Today, California (the most populous state) has 53 congressional seats, while seven states (Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Delaware) have only one each. -This clause also requires that a Census be taken every ten years, to count the population in each state in order to ensure that each state's representation in Congress remains proportional to its population, even as state populations change over time. (In recent decades, for example, fast-growing southern and western states have gained seats, while many northeastern states have lost them.) -The brief mention of "Direct taxes" in the first sentence long made it impossible for the government to use a tax system like the one we have today, since it required taxes to be charged in proportion to each state's population, rather than in proportion to each individual's income. Only the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913 got rid of this requirement, making it possible for the government to create the modern income tax system. -The infamous three-fifths compromise allowed slave states to count three-fifths of their slave populations for the purpose of congressional apportionment, even though those slaves obviously had no democratic voting rights. The Framers of the Constitution were careful not to use the words "slave" or "slavery" anywhere in the document, instead referring here to slaves euphemistically as "all other Persons." The passage of the 13th Amendment, which banned slavery following the Civil War, finally struck this offensive passage from the Constitution. Clause 4. "When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies." -If a congressional seat should become vacant in the middle of a term, for whatever reason, the state's governor (a.k.a. "the Executive Authority thereof") is supposed to call a special election to fill the vacancy. Clause 5 "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment." -The House of Representatives has the power to choose its own leaders; customarily, the majority party chooses its leader to serve as the Speaker of the House. -The House of Representatives—and only the House of Representatives—has the power to impeach executive and judicial officers deemed unfit for office. (To "impeach" means to accuse; if the House does vote to impeach, the Senate must then decide whether or not to convict and remove the person from office.)

Article 1, Section 9

Clause 1 "The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a Tax or duty may be imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person." -This is another euphemistic nod to America's dark history of slavery. "Such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit" is a really long-winded way of saying "slaves" without actually saying "slaves." The Constitution barred any attempt to outlaw the slave trade before 1808. As soon as that date rolled around, Congress did vote to block the international slave trade, although slaves continued to be sold within the country and slavery itself lasted for almost another 60 years. Clause 2 "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." -The Writ of Habeas Corpus is perhaps the most important foundation of civil liberties. "Habeas corpus" is a Latin term meaning "you shall have the body"; in practice, the right to Habeas corpus means that you can't be held in jail without facing legitimate charges of some kind—there is no such thing as indefinite detention without due legal process. Violations of habeas have been quite controversial in American history. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln (in one of his most criticized moves ever) suspended habeas; during the War on Terror, George W. Bush controversially argued that terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had no right to habeas and thus could be held indefinitely without trial. Clause 3 "No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." -A bill of attainder is a law that simply declares, by legislative fiat, that certain people are guilty of a crime and then imposes some kind of punishment upon them. In other words, it's a way for a legislature to act like judge and jury, convicting and punishing people without benefit of trial. Bills of attainder used to be used occasionally by the British Parliament; the American Founding Fathers viewed them as terrible violations of liberty and banned them from the United States. -An ex post facto law is a law that retroactively criminalizes a certain act after it has already been committed. In other words, it would allow a person to be prosecuted for doing something that wasn't actually illegal yet at the time they did it. The framers of the Constitution viewed ex post facto laws, like bills of attainder, as blatant abuses of power and banned them. Clause 4 "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken." -A capitation tax is a "head tax," one charged to each individual in the population. This clause required Congress to levy any taxes on the basis of a state's population, not on the basis of individual income or any other standard. The 16th Amendment, passed in 1913, struck the reference to "other direct Tax[es]", making it possible to create the modern personal income tax system that we have today. Clause 5 "No Tax or Duty shall be laid on Articles exported from any State." -Southern economies at the time of the Constitutional Convention depended upon the export of cash crops like cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo. Those states insisted that the Constitution ensure that those exports wouldn't be taxed by the national government. In the so-called Commerce Compromise, the northern states agreed. Congress does have the power to tax imports, though. Clause 6 " No Preference shall be given by any Regulation of Commerce or Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another: nor shall Vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clear or pay Duties in another." -This clause is designed to ensure that all states are treated fairly by the national government. Congress can't charge taxes for shipping goods from one state to another, and it can't favor one state's ports over another through preferential regulations or taxes. Clause 7 "No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time." -This clause is critically important, granting Congress (and only Congress) the "power of the purse"—that is, control over government spending. The president can't get his hands on one dime of the public's money without Congress first approving that spending in an appropriations bill. Congress's control over the government's money is perhaps the most important check against unlimited presidential power. Clause 8 "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." -Here the Framers of the Constitution sought to ensure that the United States would never develop a formal aristocracy such as that which ruled Britain. The US government cannot grant any titles of nobility; here in America, we have no counts or dukes or earls. Further, no one working for the government is allowed to accept a grant of nobility from a foreign government, either. This was mainly included as an attempt to block foreign corruption of US government officials.

Article 2, Section 2

Clause 1 "The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." -The president is commander-in-chief of the military. -He is the boss of the heads of all the civilian departments of government; the bit here about requiring their written opinions provides the constitutional basis for the cabinet. -He has the power to pardon individuals convicted of crimes. Clause 2 "He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose 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 has the power to negotiate treaties with foreign governments, although a two-thirds vote of the Senate is required for ratification. -He also has the power to nominate all appointed officials of the government, including both officers of the executive branch and judges of the judicial branch, although he needs to receive the "advice and consent" of the Senate in doing so. (In modern practice, that means a majority-vote approval of his nominees.) Clause 3: "The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session." -The president can make "recess appointments"—appointing individuals to government positions without Senate approval—any time the Senate is out of session. Recess appointments are only temporary, however; they cannot last longer than the next session of Congress.

Article 1, Section 3

Clause 1 "The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote." -Each state, regardless of population, gets two seats in the Senate. Each senator's term lasts six years. Originally, senators were not elected by the people but were instead chosen by their state legislatures. This led, by the end of the nineteenth century, to widespread accusations of corruption. The 17th Amendment, an important Progressive Era reform passed in 1913, allowed for the direct election of senators by the people. Clause 2 "Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and 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." -The idea is simply to ensure that one third of the Senate's seats are up for election every two years, making the Senate a "continuing body." That just means that all the senators will never face election at the same time. The deleted section at the end was overwritten by the The 17th Amendment, which allowed direct election of senators in 1913. The 17th Amendment requires any Senate vacancy to be filled in a special election called by the state's governor. Clause 3 "No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen." -Basic job requirements for the Senate: You have to be at least 30 years old, a citizen for at least nine years, and a resident of the state you want to represent. Clause 4 "The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided." -The vice president has a pretty useless role in the government... unless the president dies, of course. Otherwise, the VP's role is largely ceremonial; he gets the cool-sounding title "President of the Senate," but he doesn't actually get to participate in its debates or cast a vote, except in the rare circumstance of a tie vote. Most vice presidents thus opt not to bother even showing up in the Senate, except on special occasions. Clause 5 "The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States." -The Senate's president pro tem—typically a senior senator of the majority party—gets to run the show when the VP of the United States isn't in the house... which, in practice, is almost always. The Senate also has the power to choose its other officers. Clause 6 "The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present." -If the House of Representatives votes to impeach any civil officer, the Senate must serve as judge and jury. If two-thirds of the senators vote to convict, the impeached official is removed from office. Twice in American history, the House has brought impeachment charges against Andrew Johnson in 1868, and Bill Clinton in 1998. In both cases, the Senate voted not to convict, and the impeached presidents served out their full terms of office. Clause 7 "Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of Honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law." -The only punishments the Senate is allowed to mete out in impeachment cases are removal from office and banishment from future government service. However, the regular courts could also then seek to impose further criminal penalties for wrongdoing.

Article 1, Section 6

Clause 1 "The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place." -Congressmen get paid by the government, at a salary they set themselves. (The The 27th Amendment, proposed in 1789 and ratified 223 years later in 1992, put some restrictions on congressmen's ability to give themselves pay raises.) -Congressmen have "legislative immunity"; that is, they cannot be charged with a crime for anything they say in Congress, and they cannot be arrested or harassed by the police unless they have committed treason or other serious crimes. The idea here is to ensure that the president can't abuse his powers by arresting or jailing legislators who disagree with him. Clause 2 "No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time: and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office." -People serving in office in either executive or judicial branches of the US government cannot also simultaneously serve in Congress, and vice versa. The idea here is to ensure the separation of powers between the three branches of government. -A member of Congress can't resign from his seat in order to take another government job if that job has had its salary increased during his term. That rule is designed to prevent corruption, making it impossible for a congressman to vote in favor of a pay raise for a certain executive office, then move into that office himself.

Article 1, Section 4

Clause 1 "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators." -The Constitution generally leaves it up to the states to organize congressional elections, but gives Congress the power to set new rules for federal elections as it sees fit. In 1842, Congress passed an important law requiring single-member district elections in every state, standardizing congressional election practices nationwide. The same law set one standard Election Day—the Tuesday after the first Monday in November—throughout the country. We still use the same Election Day today. Clause 2 "The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day." -This clause requires at least one session of Congress to meet each year. The 20th Amendment, passed in 1933, moved the standard opening day from the first Monday in December to January 3.

Article 2, Section 1

Clause 1 "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term, be elected, as follows:" -By granting the president a sweeping "executive power"—a power not carefully defined in the Constitution— Article II establishes the presidency as a strong office within the American government. That broad executive power gives the president a strong mandate to enforce the country's laws and administer the country's public policies. This clause also indicates that the president's (and vice president's) term of office lasts four years. Clause 2 "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector." -Here the Framers establish the Electoral College, creating a rather convoluted system for electing the president. Each state gets a number of electoral votes equal to its number of senators plus its number of US representatives; this system splits the difference between allocating electoral votes proportional to population or equally to each state. Over the course of American history, this system has allowed four candidates to win the presidency despite losing the nationwide popular vote, most recently George W. Bush in 2000. Clause 3 "The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant of the same State with themselves. 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 chuse from them by Ballot the Vice President." -This whole bit got deleted by the 12th Amendment, which took effect all the way back in 1804. The original system proved not to work too well in the election of 1800, when Thomas Jefferson accidentally finished in a tie with his vice-presidential running-mate, Aaron Burr. The 12th Amendment sought to avoid that problem by separating the balloting for president from that for vice president. Clause 4 "The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States." -Congress gets to set the date for presidential elections. Since the mid-nineteenth century, Congress has always chosen to hold presidential elections on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. Clause 5 "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States." -Formal job requirements for the presidency: he has to have been born in the United States, he has to be at least 35 years old, and he has to been living inside the US for at least 14 years. Clause 6 " In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by Law provide for the Case of Removal, Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, and such Officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be elected." -This clause, which establishes a procedure for what to do if the president (or vice president) kicks the bucket while in office, was modified by the 25th Amendment in 1967. Clause 7 "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased 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." -The presidency is a paid position. The president receives a pre-set salary that cannot be changed during the course of his term. The president's salary is currently set at $400,000, plus a $50,000 expense account. Clause 8 "Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.' " -The Constitution actually spells out the exact language of the presidential oath of office, which must be taken upon the president's inauguration.

Article 3, Section 2

Clause 1 "The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or which shall be made, under their Authority;--to all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls;--to all Cases of admiralty and maritime Jurisdiction;--to Controversies to which the United States shall be a Party;--to Controversies between two or more States;-- between a State and Citizens of another State;--between Citizens of different States;--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." -This section establishes the jurisdiction of the federal courts. Federal courts can decide cases involving federal law, disputes between different states, and disputes between residents of different states. (Cases involving state laws and disputes between residents of one state are heard in state courts.) The 11th Amendment, passed in 1795, curtailed federal jurisdiction in several types of cases involving state governments. Clause 2 "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make. -"Original jurisdiction" means the court hears a case in the first instance. "Appellate jurisdiction" means that the court hears a case only upon appeal of a previous decision from a lower court. The US Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in a few select kinds of cases—those involving ambassadors, for example. But in practice, the overwhelming majority of cases heard by the Supreme Court get there on appeal from lower federal courts or state courts. Clause 3 "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed." -Someone accused of a crime in federal court has the right to have his trial heard by a jury of his peers, rather than decided solely by a judge. The Framers of the Constitution believed that trial by jury was a crucial bulwark of liberty, preventing any potentially tyrannical judges from abusing their power.

Article 3, Section 3

Clause 1 "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court." -The Framers of the Constitution took treason seriously. It was the one and only crime specifically defined in the Constitution. The requirement for two eyewitnesses to an overt act of treason to convict someone for the crime remains an odd wrinkle in the law today. Clause 2 "The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted." -The government cannot punish the relatives or descendents of someone convicted of treason; the maximum punishment for committing treason is death. In actual practice, the United States has never executed anyone for committing treason.

Amendment 13

Section 1 "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Section 2 "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." -The first of the three "Civil War Amendments," the Thirteenth Amendment is pretty straightforward: It bans slavery throughout the United States or its territories.