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Learn about the history and meaning of the 27 constitutional amendments that have been ratified by the states. Find out which ones are part of the Bill of Rights, how they affect individual and state rights, and how they were proposed and ratified.
Learn about the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, from the Bill of Rights to the 27th Amendment. Find out the history, purpose, and impact of each amendment on the rights and powers of citizens and government.
List of amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Thirty-three amendments to the Constitution of the United States have been proposed by the United States Congress and sent to the states for ratification since the Constitution was put into operation on March 4, 1789.
U.S. constitutional amendments. amendment. year. description. First Amendment. 1791. prohibits laws "respecting an establishment of religion" and protects freedoms of religion, speech, and the press and the rights to assemble peaceably and petition the government. Second Amendment. 1791.
AmendmentYearDescription1791prohibits laws "respecting an ...1791protects the people's right to "keep and ...1791prohibits the involuntary quartering of ...1791forbids unreasonable searches and ...- First Amendment
- Second Amendment
- Third Amendment
- Fourth Amendment
- Fifth Amendment
- Sixth Amendment
- Seventh Amendment
- Eighth Amendment
- Ninth Amendment
- 10th Amendment
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In order to secure support for the Constitution among Anti-Federalists, who feared it gave too much power to the national government at the expense of individual states, James Madison agreed to draft a Bill of Rights during the first session of Congress. Of these first 10 amendments, the First Amendment is arguably the most famous and most importan...
The text of the Second Amendment reads: “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.” During the Revolutionary War era, “militia” referred to groups of men who banded together to protect their communities, towns, coloniesand eventually states. Diff...
This amendment prohibits the quartering of militia in private homes in either war or peacetime without consent of the homes’ owners. As a reaction against past laws allowing British soldiers to take shelter in colonists’ homes whenever they wanted, the Third Amendmentdoesn’t appear to have much constitutional relevance today, as the federal governm...
The Fourth Amendment’s guarantee of “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” also grew directly out of colonial Americans’ experiences prior to the Revolutionary War. Most notably, British authorities made use of general warrants, which were court orders that all...
In addition to the famous right to refuse to testify against oneself (or “plead the Fifth”), the Fifth Amendment establishes other key rights for defendants in criminal proceedings, including the need for formal accusation by a grand jury and the protection against double jeopardy, or being tried for the same crime twice. It also requires the feder...
The Sixth Amendment also deals with protecting the rights of people against possible violations by the criminal justice system. It ensures the right to a public trial by an impartial jury without a significant delay and gives defendants the right to hear the charges against them, call and cross-examine witnesses and retain a lawyer to defend them i...
With the Seventh Amendment, Madison addressed two Anti-Federalist concerns: that the document failed to require jury trials for civil (non-criminal) cases, and that it gave the Supreme Court the power to overturn the factual findings of juries in lower courts. Considered one of the most straightforward amendments in the Bill or Rights, the Seventh ...
The Eighth Amendment continues the theme of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments by targeting potential abuses on the part of the criminal justice system. In banning the requirement of “excessive bail,” the imposition of “excessive fines,” and the infliction of “cruel and unusual punishment,” but leaving the exact interpretation of these terms unclear, i...
During the debate that produced the Bill of Rights, skeptics argued that by listing such fundamental rights in the Constitution, the framers would be implying that the rights they did not list did not exist. Madison sought to allay these fears with the Ninth Amendment. It ensures that even while certain rights are enumerated in the Constitution, pe...
As the final amendment in the Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment originally aimed to reassure Anti-Federalists by further defining the balance of power between the national government and those of the individual states. According to the 10th Amendment, the federal government’s powers are limited to those expressly given to it by the Constitution, w...
Learn about the 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, their summaries, changes and significance. Find out how they were proposed, ratified and interpreted by the Supreme Court.
Among these amendments were the constitutional provisions for rearmament in 1956 and emergency legislation in 1968. Major constitutional reforms were enacted in 1994 following reunification and in 2006 and 2009 in order to reorganizse the federalist competences and financial structures of Germany.
A constitutional amendment is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text.
