AMENDMENT XI
Passed by Congress March 4, 1794. Ratified February 7, 1795.
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
Passed by Congress December 9, 1803. Ratified July 27, 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 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,] {Altered by 20th Amendment}
then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in 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 numbers 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
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 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
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 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 to 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
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 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
Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.
The Congress shall have power to lay and
collect taxes on incomes, from whatever sources derived, without
apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any
census or enumeration.
AMENDMENT XVII
Passed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 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
Passed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919.{Altered by
Amendment 21}
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. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent
power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 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
Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 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
Section 1.
The terms of the President and the
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 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 (October 1933).
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
Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 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
Passed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951.
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 that two years of a term
to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to
the office of President more that once. But this Article shall not
apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article
was proposed by 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.
AMENDMENT XXIII
Passed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961.
Section 1.
The District constituting the seat of
Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as
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 preform 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
Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 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 Representative in Congress, shall not be
denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of
failure to pay poll tax or any other tax.
Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
AMENDMENT XXV
Passed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 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 the 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, transmits 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 departments or of such other body as Congress may by law
provide, transmits 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
Passed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified June 30, 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 power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.