Bill_of_Rights
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
1st Amendment
Congress shall make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress
of grievances.
2nd Amendment
A well-regulated militia
being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed.
3rd Amendment
No soldier shall, in time
of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner; nor in
time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
4th Amendment
The right of the people to
be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly
describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.
5th Amendment
No person shall be held to
answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous, crime, unless on a presentment or
indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces,
or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war, or public danger; nor
shall any person be subject, for the same 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 state.
12th Amendment
The Electors shall meet in
their respective States, and vote by ballot for
President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant
of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person
voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice
President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as
President, and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of
votes for each, which lists they shall sign, and certify, and transmit, sealed,
to the seat of the Government of the United States, directed to the President of
the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and
the House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall
then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President
shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of
Electors appointed; and if no person have such a majority, then, from the
persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those
voted for a President, the House of Representative shall choose immediately, by
ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken
by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and
a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President, whenever the right of choice shall
devolve upon them, [before the fourth day of March next following] the Vice
President shall act as President, as in case of death, or other constitutional
disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as
Vice President, shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the
whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then, form
the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President;
a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of
Senators; a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible
to that of Vice-President of the United States.
13th Amendment
Sect. 1. Neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party
shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any
place subject to their jurisdiction.
Sect. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
14th Amendment
Sect. 1. All persons born
or naturalized in the United States, and subject to
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge
the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any
State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of
law, nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
laws.
Sect. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in
each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any
election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the
United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers
of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the
male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of
the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion
or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number
of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
Sect. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector
of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under
the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as
a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of
any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to
support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the
enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove
such disability.
Sect. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation
incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any
claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts,
obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Sect. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.
15th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of
citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
16th Amendment
The Congress shall have
power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without
apportionment among the several States and without regard to any census or
enumeration.
17th Amendment
The Senate of the United
States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people
thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most
numerous branch of the State legislatures. When vacancies happen in the
representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State
shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the
legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary
appointment until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature
may direct. This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election
or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the
Constitution.
18th Amendment
Sect. 1. After one year
from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale or transportation of
intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation
thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction
thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Sect. 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Sect. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified
as
an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as
provided in the Constitution, within seven years of the date of the submission
hereof to the States by Congress.
19th Amendment
The right of citizens of
the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall
have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
20th Amendment
Sect. 1. The terms of the
President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and
the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of
the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been
ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every years, and such
meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law
appoint a different day.
Sect. 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President,
the President-elect shall have died, the Vice President-elect shall become
President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for
the beginning of his term, or if the President-elect shall have failed to
qualify, then the Vice President-elect shall act as President until a President
shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein
neither a President-elect nor a Vice President-elect shall have qualified,
declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to
act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President
or Vice President shall have qualified.
Sect. 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of
the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President
whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of
the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President
whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Sect. 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October
following the ratification of this article.
Sect. 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified
as an amendment to the Constitution by three-fourths of the several States
within seven years from the date of its submission.
21st Amendment
Sect. 1. The eighteenth
article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby
repealed.
Sect. 2. The
transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the
United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation
of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Sect. 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified
as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as
provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission
hereof to the States by the Congress.
22d Amendment
Sect. 1. No person
shall be elected to the office of the President more than
twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as
President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was
elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than
once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of
President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent
any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President,
during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the
office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Sect. 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified
as
an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the
several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the States
by the Congress.
23rd Amendment
Sect. 1. The District
constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such
manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice
President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representative in Congress
to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more
than the least populous State; they shall be considered, for the purposes of the
election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State;
and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the
twelfth article of amendment.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
24th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of
citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or
other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or
Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay
any poll tax or other tax.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
25th Amendment
Sect. 1. In case of the
removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice
President shall become President.
Sect. 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the
President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon
confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Sect. 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speakers of the House of Representatives his written declaration
that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he
transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties
shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Sect. 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal
officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by
law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker
of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is
unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President
shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting
President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore
of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written
declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of
his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal
officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by
law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration
that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours
for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days
after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both
Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his
office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting
President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his
office.
26th Amendment
Sect. 1. The right of
citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account
of age.
Sect. 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
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.
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