A short eighteenth-century document structures a twenty-first-century government—and leaves each generation to argue over text, history, precedent, and democratic legitimacy.
Seven articles
Article I creates Congress; Article II the presidency; Article III the federal judiciary. The remaining articles address relations among states, amendment, federal supremacy, ratification, and continuity from the Articles of Confederation.
The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments, ratified in 1791, protect freedoms of expression, religion, assembly, and petition; regulate criminal procedure; recognize protections involving arms, property, privacy, and jury trial; and reserve undelegated powers.
Reconstruction transformed the document
The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, the Fourteenth defined national citizenship and constrained states through due process and equal protection, and the Fifteenth prohibited racial discrimination in voting. Their interpretation remains central to constitutional law.
How amendment works
An amendment may be proposed by two-thirds of both houses of Congress or by a convention called on application of two-thirds of state legislatures. Ratification requires three-fourths of the states. Twenty-seven amendments have completed the process.