Bill of Rights
(1st 10 Amendments to the Constitution)
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; ion the government for a redress of
grievances.
2nd Amendment
A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of
the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
3rd Amendment
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of
the owner; nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
4th Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall
issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
5th Amendment
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, unless
on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or
naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war, or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject, for the same offense, to be twice put in jeopardy of life
or limb; nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself;
nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall
private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
6th Amendment
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public
trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been
committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law; and to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses
against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor; and to have
the assistance of counsel for his defense.
7th Amendment
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the
right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no fact, tried by a jury, shall be
otherwise re- examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of
the common law.
8th Amendment
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishment inflicted.
9th Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the people.
10th Amendment
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it
to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
11th Amendment
The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in
law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of
another State or by citizens or subjects of any foreign sta
The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President
and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State
with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and
in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President; and they shall make distinct
lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice
President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign, and certify,
and transmit, sealed, to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the
President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate
and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be
counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if
no person have such a majority, then, from the persons having the highest numbers, not
exceeding three, on the list of those voted for a President, the House of Representative
shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the
votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House
of Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall
devolve upon them, [before the fourth day of March next following] the Vice President
shall act as President, as in case of death, or other constitutional disability of the
President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President, shall be the
Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed;
and if no person have a majority, then, form the two highest numbers on the list, the
Senate shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of
two-thirds of the whole number of Senators; a majority of the whole number shall be
necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of
President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
13th Amendment
Sect. 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime,
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
14th Amendment
Sect. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or
immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Sect. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to
their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding
Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors
for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the
executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is
denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in
rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Sect. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of
President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United
States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress,
or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United
States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or
comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House,
remove such disability.
Sect. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing
insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any
State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any
slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Sect. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the
provisions of this article.
15th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
16th Amendment
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source
derived, without apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census
or enumeration.
17th Amendment
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State,
elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The
electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the representation of
any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of
election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower
the executive thereof to make temporary appointment until the people fill the vacancies by
election as the legislature may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to
affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the
Constitution.
18th Amendment
Sect. 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale or
transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the
exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction
thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Sect. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Sect. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in
the Constitution, within seven years of the date of the submission hereof to the States by
Congress.
19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by
the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
20th Amendment
Sect. 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of
January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been
ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting
shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different
day.
Sect. 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the
President-elect shall have died, the Vice President-elect shall become President. If a
President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term,
or if the President-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President-elect
shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law
provide for the case wherein neither a President-elect nor a Vice President-elect shall
have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who
is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or
Vice President shall have qualified.
Sect. 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the
persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right
of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the
persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice
shall have devolved upon them.
Sect. 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October
following the ratification of this article.
Sect. 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by three-fourths of the several States within seven years
from the date of its submission.
21st Amendment
Sect. 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States
is hereby repealed.
Sect. 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of
the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the
laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Sect. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the
Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by
the Congress.
22nd Amendment
Sect. 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and
no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two
years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the
office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person
holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall
not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President,
during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of
President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Sect. 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states
within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.
23rd Amendment
Sect. 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall
appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and
Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representative in Congress to
which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the
least populous State; they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of
President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in
the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
24th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other
election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or
for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United
States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
25th Amendment
Sect. 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or
resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Sect. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President
shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote
of both Houses of Congress.
Sect. 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate
and the Speakers of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable
to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written
declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice
President as Acting President.
Sect. 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of
the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit
to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives
their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties
of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the
office as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro
tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written
declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office
unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive
department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days
to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives
their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties
of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight
hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after
Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the
President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President
shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall
resume the powers and duties of his office.
26th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or
older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on
account of age.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
27th Amendment
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives,
shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened. |