How many articles and amendments in the constitution

The president nominates federal judges. Under Article V, there are two ways to propose amendments to the Constitution and two ways to ratify them. They were ratified on December 15, , as additional rights protections. Protections Amendment 1 Freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly; the right to petition the government. Amendment 5 Procedures for criminal prosecutions: Grand Jury indictment required for felony charges in federal court Double jeopardy clause prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime A defendant cannot be forced to testify.

Bill of Attainder - A legislative act that declares the guilt of an individual and doles out punishment without a judicial trial. The state legislatures and Congress are forbidden by Article 1, sections 9 and 10 of the Constitution to pass such acts. This is an important ingredient of the separation of powers. Executive Privilege - The claimed right of executive officials to refuse to appear before, or to withhold information from, the legislature or courts on the grounds that the information is confidential and would damage the national interest.

For example, President Nixon refused, unsuccessfully, to surrender his subpoenaed White House tapes by claiming executive privilege. Executive Order This critical instrument of active presidential power is nowhere defined in the Constitution but generally is construed as a presidential directive that becomes law without prior congressional approval.

The power for the executive order is implied in Article II of the Constitution when it allots "executive power" to the president:. Double Jeopardy - The guarantee in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution that one may not be tried twice for the same crime.

For example, an individual declared not guilty of murdering a neighbor cannot be tried again for that murder. The person is not, however, exempt from being tried for the murder of another individual. Habeus Corpus - A court order directing a police officer, sheriff, or warden who has a person in custody to bring the prisoner before a judge and show sufficient cause for his or her detention.

Designed to prevent illegal arrests and unlawful imprisonment. A Latin term meaning "you shall have the body". Impeachment - A formal accusation against a public official by the lower house of a legislative body. Impeachment is merely an accusation and not a conviction. Anthony argued that the 14th Amendment privileges and immunities clause gave women the right to vote since they had been citizens all along. In Minor v Happersett , the Supreme Court decided that being citizens alone did not give women the right to vote, so the women's suffrage movement worked to get a US Constitutional Amendment passed to give women the right to vote.

Today, women make a major difference in elections and are running for office themselves. 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. 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.

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.

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.

Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article. 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 20th Amendment set the beginning and end of presidential terms and Congressional sessions.

It also lays out the order of presidential succession, but that order was later altered by the 25th Amendment. In , Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to be inaugurated in January, as set out by the 20th Amendment, instead of in March, or in April, as George Washington had been. 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.

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.

The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition. It was passed by Congress on February 20, , and ratified on December 5, This is the only amendment that repeals a previous amendment and it is the only amendment that was ratified by the state ratifying conventions as opposed to the legislatures of the states. Read More: 14 things you didn't know about the history of beer.

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.

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.

The 22nd Amendment — which was passed by Congress on March 21, , and ratified on February 27, — limits presidential terms to two. This is mostly because George Washington decided to retire after just two terms, which set the precedent for the next years of presidents in the United States.

The 22nd Amendment was passed out of fear of a tyrannical president. Prior to the passage of this amendment, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected to four terms as president, serving from until his death in 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.

The 23rd Amendment was passed by Congress June 16, , and ratified on March 29, It allowed the citizens of Washington, DC, to choose electors for presidential elections because, as citizens of a federal district and not a state, DC residents are not citizens of a state.

Before this amendment was ratified, DC residents were denied the right to vote for federal public officials. Today, DC residents are still unrepresented in Congress , but they have a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives. 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.

The 24th Amendment was passed by Congress on August 27, , and ratified on January 23, It abolished poll taxes, which had previously been required to vote in elections.

When the US Constitution was first ratified, most states allowed only property owners to vote, but as time went on, many states moved to poll taxes. At first, that expanded the right to vote because more citizens could pay the poll tax than prove they were property owners. However, poll taxes were brought back as a way to prevent black Americans from voting until the Voting Rights Act of 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 25th Amendment — which was passed by Congress on July 6, , and ratified on February 10, — sets the order of succession for the president and lays out what to do in the case of presidential incapacity. This amendment has only been used three times since it was ratified, to relieve presidents from their duties because of physical health. It was initially passed out of fear of presidential succession after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in The first use of the 25th Amendment was in when Gerald R.

Ford became president after Richard Nixon's resignation. Bush during a surgery. George W. Bush invoked the 25th Amendment twice during his presidency to give Vice President Dick Cheney presidential powers while he had routine colonoscopies in and in 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.

This is the last amendment that deals with voting rights protections. Before the 26th Amendment was ratified, Americans voted at age However, during the Vietnam War, men were being drafted from the age of 18 and yet they didn't have the right to vote, so Congress passed the Voting Rights Act that lowered the voting age for all elections at the federal, state and local level to It was passed by Congress on March 23, , and ratified on July 1, The Supreme Court held in Oregon v.

Mitchell that Congress couldn't require state and local governments to lower the voting age, so the 26th Amendment was ratified in order to do that. 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 27th Amendment , also known as the Congressional Compensation Act of , was the second amendment that James Madison proposed when he brought forward his draft of 12 amendments to the US Constitution.

It says that pay raises or decreases for members of Congress can only take effect after the next election.

When it was originally proposed in , only six states voted for it to be ratified including Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia.

For 80 years, the proposal was untouched, but Ohio ratified it in and Wyoming ratified it in In , a movement to ratify the amendment was started by an undergraduate student to prevent corruption in Congress. By the '90s, the necessary 38 states had ratified the amendment, almost years after it was proposed.

It was ratified on May 7, A Otis Secretary of the Senate. Amendments Note: The following text is a transcription of the first ten amendments to the Constitution in their original form. These amendments were ratified December 15, , and form what is known as the "Bill of Rights.

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.

Note: The capitalization and punctuation in this version is from the enrolled original of the Joint Resolution of Congress proposing the Bill of Rights , which is on permanent display in the Rotunda of the National Archives Building , Washington, D.

Back to Main Bill of Rights Page. Top Skip to main content. Constitution Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine.

Amendment II 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. Amendment III 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.

Amendment IV 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.

Amendment V 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.

Amendment VI 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.

Amendment VII 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. Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.