Amendment
XI
[Suits Against States]
Jan. 8, 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
[Separate Election of the President and
Vice-President]
Sept. 25, 1804
[1] 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 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 death or other constitutional disability of the President.
[2] 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
[Abolition of Slavery]
Dec. 18, 1865
Section 1 Neither slavery nor
involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a 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 the power
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIV
[Equal Protection Under the Laws, et
al.]
July 28, 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 States 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 the
power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this
article.
Amendment XV
[Negro Suffrage]
Mar. 30, 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 the
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XVI
[Income Tax]
Feb. 25, 1913
The Congress shall have the 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.
Amendment
XVII
[Direct Election of Senators]
April 8, 1913
Section 1 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.
Section 2 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.
Section 3 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
[Prohibition]
Jan. 29, 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
[Woman Suffrage]
Aug. 26, 1920
Section 1 The right of the 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.
Section 2 Congress shall have power to
enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment
XX
[Establishment of Inauguration as Jan.
20th]
[Clarification of Presidential
Succession]
Feb. 6, 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 3rd 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 3rd 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 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
[Repeal of Prohibition]
Dec. 5, 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
[Limitation of the President to Two
Terms]
Feb. 26, 1951
Section 1 No person shall be elected to
the office of 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
President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person who may
be 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
[Provision for Presidential Electors from
the District of Columbia]
Apr. 3, 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
[Protection from Poll-Taxes]
Jan. 23, 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
Representatives 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
[Disability of the President]
Feb. 10, 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 principle 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 principle officers of the executive department[s] 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 the 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 the 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
[Reduction of Legal Voting Age to
Eighteen]
June 30, 1971
Section 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.
Section 2 The Congress shall have power
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Amendment
XXVII
[Fixing of Salaries of Serving
Congressmen]
May 18, 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.