Amendment XI
(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
(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 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 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, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the 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 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
(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
(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 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 power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
Amendment XV
(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 power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment XVI
(1913)
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on
incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment
among the several states, and without regard to any census of
enumeration.
Amendment XVII
(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 (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
(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
(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 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.
Section 2. 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.
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 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.
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
(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
(1951)
Section 1. 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.
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 (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
(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 any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
Amendment XXV
(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
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.
Amendment XXVI
(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 the power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation.
Amendment
XXVII (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.
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