Additional Amendments
For the First 10 Amendments, see the Bill of
Rights
Amendment XI
(1798)
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.
Amendment XII
(1804)
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 the 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.
Amendment XIII
(1865)
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.
Amendment XIV
(1868)
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.
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.
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.
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 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce,
by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Amendment XV
(1870)
Section 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XVI
(1913)
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 of enumeration.
Amendment XVII
(1913)
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.
Amendment XVIII
(1919)
Section 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.
Section 2. The Congress and the several states
shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Section 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 from the date of the submission hereof to the states by
the Congress.
Amendment XIX
(1920)
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.
Amendment XX
(1933)
Section 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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the
15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
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.
Amendment XXI
(1933)
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to
the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
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 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.
Amendment XXII
(1951)
Section 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.
Section 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.
Amendment XXIII
(1961)
Section 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 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXIV
(1964)
Section 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.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce
this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXV
(1967)
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President
from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall
become President.
Section 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.
Section 3. 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.
Section 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 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.
Amendment XXVI
(1971)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United
States, who are 18 years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any state on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXVII
(1992)
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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