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The United States Constitution
| United States Constitution | |
 Page one of the original copy of the Constitution |
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| Created | September 17 1787 |
|---|---|
| Ratified | June 21 1788 |
| Location | National Archives |
| Authors | Delegates of the Philadelphia Convention |
| Signers | 39 of the 55 Philadelphia Convention delegates |
| Purpose | National constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation |
| United States of America |
This article is part of the series: |
| Original text of the Constitution |
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| Preamble Articles of the Constitution |
| Amendments to the Constitution |
| Bill of Rights I ∙ II ∙ III ∙ IV ∙ V VI ∙ VII ∙ VIII ∙ IX ∙ X Subsequent Amendments |
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It provides the framework for the organization of the United States Government. The document outlines the three main branches of the government. The executive branch is headed by the President. The legislative branch is embodied in the bicameral Congress. The judicial branch is headed by the nine-member Supreme Court. Besides providing for the organization of these branches, the Constitution carefully outlines which powers each branch may exercise. It also reserves numerous rights for the individual states, and thus establishes the United States\' federal system of government.
The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in each state in the name of "the People"; it has since been amended twenty-seven times, the first ten ammendments being known as the Bill of Rights.WikiSource. WikiSource: Constitution of the United States of America. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.Library of Congress. Primary Documents in American History: The United States Constitution. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. The Constitution has a central place in United States law and political culture. Casey (1974) The U.S. Constitution is the oldest federal constitution of any existing nation.Brook, John Robert (1956-57). Judicial and Executive Functions of the Legislator in New York. New York City: Fordham University Press, 278. The handwritten, or "engrossed", original document is on display at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. The United States Constitution has 4,543 words, including the signatures.NARA. Constitution of the United States — Questions and Answers. Retrieved on 2007-12-13.
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In September 1786, commissioners from five states met in the Annapolis Convention to discuss adjustments to the Articles of Confederation that would improve commerce. They invited state representatives to convene in Philadelphia to discuss improvements to the federal government. After debate, the Congress of the Confederation endorsed the plan to revise the Articles of Confederation on February 21 1787.NARA. National Archives Article on the Constitutional Convention. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. Twelve states, Rhode Island being the only exception, accepted this invitation and sent delegates to convene in May 1787.NARA. National Archives Article on the Constitutional Convention. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. The resolution calling the Convention specified that its purpose was to propose amendments to the Articles, but the Convention decided to propose a rewritten Constitution.NARA. National Archives Article on the Constitution. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. The Philadelphia Convention voted to keep the debates secret, so that the delegates could speak freely. They also decided to draft a new fundamental government design, which eventually stipulated that only nine of the thirteen states would have to ratify for the new government to go into effect (for the participating states).NARA. National Archives Article on the Constitution. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. Our knowledge of the drafting and construction of the United States Constitution comes primarily from the diaries left by James Madison, who kept a complete record of the proceedings at the Constitutional Convention.NARA. National Archives Article on James Madison. Retrieved on 2007-12-16.
The Virginia Plan was the unofficial agenda for the Convention, and was drafted chiefly by James Madison, considered to be "The Father of the Constitution" for his major contributions.NARA. National Archives Article on James Madison. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. It was weighted toward the interests of the larger states, and proposed among other points:
The Founding Fathers, however, could not resolve the issue of Slavery which divided the Colonies and was preventing agreement on the remainder of the Constitution. Accordingly, they made the decision to keep the status quo and leave it to future generations to resolve this issue.See Joeseph Ellis, Founding Brothers, The Revolutionary Generation, Ch.3 (Alfred A. Knopff 2000). As a result, the original Constitution contained four provisions tacitly allowing slavery to continue for the next 20 years. Section 9 of Article I allowed the continued "importation" of such persons, Section 2 of Article IV prohibited the provision of assistance to escaping persons and required their return if successful and Section 2 of Article I defined other persons as "three-fifths" of a person for calculations of each state\'s official population.Section 2 of Article I provides in part: "Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states . . . by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons." Article V prohibited any amendments or legislation changing these provisions until 1808, thereby giving the States then existing 20 years to resolve this issue. The failure to do so led to the Civil War.See South Carolina Declaration of Causes in Seccession (December 24, 1860), reprinted in Richard Hofstadter, Great Issues in American History. Volume II, Vintage Books (1958), p.76-7; Abraham Lincoln, Message to Congress (July 4, 1861) reprinted in Hofstadter, supra.
| Ratification of the Constitution | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | State | Votes | ||
| Yes | No | |||
| 1 | December 7 1787 | Delaware | 30 | 0 |
| 2 | December 12 1787 | Pennsylvania | 46 | 23 |
| 3 | December 18 1787 | New Jersey | 38 | 0 |
| 4 | January 2 1788 | Georgia | 26 | 0 |
| 5 | January 9 1788 | Connecticut | 128 | 40 |
| 6 | February 6 1788 | Massachusetts | 187 | 168 |
| 7 | April 28 1788 | Maryland | 63 | 11 |
| 8 | May 23 1788 | South Carolina | 149 | 73 |
| 9 | June 21 1788 | New Hampshire | 57 | 47 |
| 10 | June 25 1788 | Virginia | 89 | 79 |
| 11 | July 26 1788 | New York | 30 | 27 |
| 12 | November 21 1789 | North Carolina | 194 | 77 |
| 13 | May 29 1790 | Rhode Island | 34 | 32 |
Contrary to the process for "alteration" spelled out in Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation, Congress submitted the proposal to the states and set the terms for representation.
On September 17 1787, the Constitution was completed in Philadelphia at the Federal Convention, followed by a speech given by Benjamin Franklin who urged unanimity, although they decided they only needed nine states to ratify the constitution for it to go into effect. The Convention submitted the Constitution to the Congress of the Confederation, where it received approval according to Article 13 of the Articles of Confederation, but the resolution of the Congress submitting the Constitution to the states for ratification and agreeing with its provision for implementation upon ratification by nine states is contrary to Article 13, though eventually all thirteen states did ratify the Constitution, albeit after it took effect.
After fierce fights over ratification in many of the states, New Hampshire became that ninth state on June 21 1788.NARA. National Archives Article on the Entire Constitutional Convention. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. Once the Congress of the Confederation received word of New Hampshire\'s ratification, it set a timetable for the start of operations under the Constitution, and on March 4 1789, the government under the Constitution began operations.
Several of the ideas in the Constitution were new, and a large number of ideas were drawn from the literature of Republicanism in the United States, from the experiences of the 13 states, and from the British experience with mixed government. The most important influence from the European continent was from Montesquieu, who emphasized the need to have balanced forces pushing against each other to prevent tyranny. (This in itself reflects the influence of Polybius\' 2nd century BC treatise on the checks and balances of the constitution of the Roman Republic.) John Locke is known to have been a major influence, and the due process clause of the United States Constitution was partly based on common law stretching back to the Magna Carta of 1215.NARA. National Archives Article on the Virginia Plan. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. Another influence on the political organization of the Constitution was the Great Law of Peace of the Iroquois Confederacy which had set a basis for the United States Constitution as well as the Articles of Confederation.Gregory Schaaf, From the Great Law of Peace to the Constitution of the United States: A Revision of America’s Democratic Roots, 14 Am. Indian L. Rev. 323 (1989) John Quincy Adams also credited the Mayflower Compact as an influence.Adams, John Quincy (1802). in Manis, Jim: John Quincy Adams\' Orations (PDF), Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
The United States Bill of Rights were the ten amendments added to the Constitution in 1791, as the supporters had promised opponents during the debates of 1788.NARA. National Archives Article on the Bill of Rights. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. The English Bill of Rights (1689) was an inspiration for the American Bill of Rights. For example, both require jury trials, contain a right to bear arms, and prohibit excessive bail as well as "cruel and unusual punishments." Many liberties protected by state constitutions and the Virginia Declaration of Rights were incorporated into the United States Bill of Rights.
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The Constitution consists of a preamble, seven original articles, twenty-seven amendments, and a paragraph certifying its enactment by the constitutional convention.
The Preamble states:
| “ | We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. | ” |
The Preamble does not grant any particular authority to the federal government and it does not prohibit any particular authority. What it does, is establish the fact that the federal government has no authority outside of what follows the preamble, as amended. "We the people", is one of the most-quoted sections of the Constitution. It was thought by federalists during this time that there was no need for a bill of rights and they thought that the preamble spelled out the people\'s rights.
Article One establishes the legislative branch of government, the United States Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Article establishes the manner of election and qualifications of members of each House. For the House a representative must be 25 years old, have been a citizen of the United States for 7 years, and live in the state they represent. For the Senate a representative must be 30 years old, have been a citizen for 9 years, and live in the state they represent. In addition, it provides for free debate in Congress and limits self-serving behavior of congressmen, outlines legislative procedure and indicates the powers of the legislative branch. There is a debate as to whether the enumerated powers listed in Article 1 Section 8 are a list of enumerated powers. These powers may also be interpreted as a list of powers, formerly either executive or judicial in nature, that have been explicitly granted to the U.S. Congress. This interpretation may be further supported by a broad definition of both the commerce clause and the necessary-and-proper clause of the Constitution. The argument for enumerated powers can be traced back to the 1819 McCulloch v. Maryland United States Supreme Court ruling. Finally, it establishes limits on federal and state legislative power.
Article Two describes the presidency (the executive branch): procedures for the selection of the president, qualifications for office, the oath to be affirmed and the powers and duties of the office. It also provides for the office of Vice President of the United States, and specifies that the Vice President succeeds to the presidency if the President is incapacitated, dies, or resigns. The original text ("the same shall devolve") leaves it unclear whether this succession was intended to be on an acting basis (merely taking on the powers of the office) or permanent (assuming the Presidency itself). After the death of William Henry Harrison, John Tyler set the precedent that the succession was permanent, and this was followed in practice; the 25th Amendment explicitly states that the Vice President becomes President in those cases. Article Two also provides for the impeachment and removal from office of civil officers (the President, Vice President, judges, and others).
Article Three describes the court system (the judicial branch), including the supreme Court. The article requires that there be one court called the supreme Court; Congress, at its discretion, can create lower courts, whose judgments and orders are reviewable by the supreme Court. Article Three also requires trial by jury in all criminal cases, defines the crime of treason, and charges Congress with providing for a punishment for it. It also sets the kinds of cases that may be heard by the federal judiciary, which cases the supreme Court may hear first (called original jurisdiction), and that all other cases heard by the supreme Court are by appeal under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
Article Four describes the relationship between the states and the Federal government and amongst the states. For instance, it requires states to give "full faith and credit" to the public acts, records and court proceedings of the other states. Congress is permitted to regulate the manner in which proof of such acts, records or proceedings may be admitted. The "privileges and immunities" clause prohibits state governments from discriminating against citizens of other states in favor of resident citizens (e.g., having tougher penalties for residents of Ohio convicted of crimes within Michigan). It also establishes extradition between the states, as well as laying down a legal basis for freedom of movement and travel amongst the states. Today, this provision is sometimes taken for granted, especially by citizens who live near state borders; but in the days of the Articles of Confederation, crossing state lines was often a much more arduous (and costly) process. Article Four also provides for the creation and admission of new states. The Territorial Clause gives Congress the power to make rules for disposing of Federal property and governing non-state territories of the United States. Finally, the fourth section of Article Four requires the United States to guarantee to each state a republican form of government, and to protect the states from invasion and violence.
Article Five describes the process necessary to amend the Constitution. It establishes two methods of proposing amendments: by Congress or by a national convention requested by the states. Under the first method, Congress can propose an amendment by a two-thirds vote (of a quorum, not necessarily of the entire body) of the Senate and of the House of Representatives. Under the second method, two-thirds (2/3) of the state legislatures may convene and "apply" to Congress to hold a national convention, whereupon Congress must call such a convention for the purpose of considering amendments. As of 2008, only the first method (proposal by Congress) has been used.
Once proposed—whether submitted by Congress or by a national convention—amendments must then be ratified by three-fourths (3/4) of the states to take effect. Article Five gives Congress the option of requiring ratification by state legislatures or by special conventions assembled in the states. The convention method of ratification has been used only once (to approve the 21st Amendment). Article Five currently places only one limitation on the amending power—that no amendment can deprive a state of its equal representation in the Senate without that state\'s consent (limitations regarding slavery and taxation having expired in 1808).
Article Six establishes the Constitution, and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it, to be the supreme law of the land, and that "the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, any thing in the laws or constitutions of any state notwithstanding." It also validates national debt created under the Articles of Confederation and requires that all federal and state legislators, officers, and judges take oaths or affirmations to support the Constitution. This means that the states\' constitutions and laws should not conflict with the laws of the federal constitution—and that in case of a conflict, state judges are legally bound to honor the federal laws and constitution over those of any state.
Article Six also states "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States".
Article Seven sets forth the requirements for ratification of the Constitution. The Constitution would not take effect until at least nine states had ratified the Constitution in state conventions specially convened for that purpose, and it would only apply to those states which ratified it.NARA. National Archives Article on the Constitution. Retrieved on 2007-12-16. (See above Drafting and ratification requirements.)
The Constitution provides for direct modification through the amendment process. Soon after the Constitution was passed, however, a key court case provided a way for the Supreme Court to modify the interpretation of the Constitution without formal amendments through the process of judicial review.
The authors of the Constitution were clearly aware that changes would be necessary from time to time if the Constitution was to endure and cope with the effects of the anticipated growth of the nation. However, they were also conscious that such change should not be easy, lest it permit ill-conceived and hastily passed amendments. Balancing this, they also wanted to ensure that an overly rigid requirement of unanimity would not block action desired by the vast majority of the population. Their solution was to devise a dual process by which the Constitution could be altered.Lutz, Donald (1994). Toward a theory of constitutional amendment.
Amending the Constitution is a two-part process: amendments must be proposed and then they must be ratified. Amendments can be proposed one of two ways. The only way that has been used to date is through a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of Congress. Alternatively, two-thirds of the legislatures of the States can call a Constitutional Convention to consider one or more amendments. This second method has never been used, and it is unclear exactly how, in practice, such a Constitutional Convention would work.
Regardless of how the amendment is proposed, the amendment must be approved by three-fourths of states, a process called ratification. Depending on the amendment, this requires either the state legislatures or special state conventions to approve the amendment by simple majority vote. Amendments generally go to state legislatures to be ratified, only the Twenty-first Amendment called for special state conventions.
Unlike many other constitutions, amendments to the U.S. constitution are appended to the existing body of the text without altering or removing what already exists. There is no provision for deleting either obsolete text or rescinded provisions.
Aside from the direct process of amending the Constitution, the way the Constitution is understood is also influenced by the decisions of the court system, and especially the Supreme Court. These decisions are referred to, collectively, as precedents. The ability of the courts to interpret the Constitution was decided early in the history of the United States, in the 1803 case of Marbury v. Madison. In that case, the Supreme Court established the doctrine of judicial review, which is the power of the Court to examine legislation and other acts of Congress and to decide their constitutionality. The doctrine also embraces the power of the Court to explain the meaning of various sections of the Constitution as they apply to particular cases brought before the Court. Since such cases will reflect changing legal, political, economic, and social conditions, this provides a mechanism, in practice, for adjusting the Constitution without needing to amend its text. Over the years, a series of Court decisions, on issues ranging from governmental regulation of radio and television to the rights of the accused in criminal cases, has affected a change in the way many Constitutional clauses are interpreted, without amendment to the actual text of the Constitution.
Congressional legislation, passed to implement provisions of the Constitution or to adapt those implementations to changing conditions, also broadens and, in subtle ways, changes the meanings given to the words of the Constitution. Up to a point, the rules and regulations of the many agencies of the federal government have a similar effect. If the actions of Congress or federal agencies are challenged as to their constitutionality, however, it is the court system that ultimately decides whether or not they are allowable under the Constitution.
The Constitution has a total of 27 amendments. The first ten, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were ratified simultaneously. The following seventeen were ratified separately.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
United States Bill of Rights currently housed in the National Archives.
The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Those amendments were adopted between 1789 and 1791, and all relate to limiting the power of the federal government. They were added in response to criticisms of the Constitution by the state ratification conventions and by prominent individuals such as Thomas Jefferson (who was not a delegate to the Constitutional Convention). These critics argued that without further restraints, the strong central government would become tyrannical. The amendments were proposed by Congress as part of a block of twelve in September 1789. By December 1791 a sufficient number of states had ratified ten of the twelve proposals, and the Bill of Rights became part of the Constitution.
It is commonly understood that the Bill of Rights was not originally intended to apply to the states, though except where amendments refer specifically to the Federal Government or a branch thereof (as in the first amendment, under which some states in the early years of the nation officially established a religion), there is no such delineation in the text itself. Nevertheless, a general interpretation of inapplicability to the states remained until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, which stated, in part, that:
| “ | 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. | ” |
The Supreme Court has interpreted this clause to extend most, but not all, parts of the Bill of Rights to the states. Nevertheless, the balance of state and federal power has remained a battle in the Supreme Court.
The amendments that became the Bill of Rights were actually the last ten of the twelve amendments proposed in 1789. The second of the twelve proposed amendments, regarding the compensation of members of Congress, remained unratified until 1992, when the legislatures of enough states finally approved it and, as a result, it became the Twenty-seventh Amendment despite more than two centuries of pendency. The first of the twelve—still technically pending before the state legislatures for ratification—pertains to the apportionment of the United States House of Representatives after each decennial census. The most recent state whose lawmakers are known to have ratified this proposal is Kentucky in 1792, during that commonwealth\'s first month of statehood.
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Additional amendments to the United States Constitution
Amendments to the Constitution subsequent to the Bill of Rights cover many subjects. The majority of the seventeen later amendments stem from continued efforts to expand individual civil or political liberties, while a few are concerned with modifying the basic governmental structure drafted in Philadelphia in 1787. Although the United States Constitution has been amended a total of 27 times, only 26 of the amendments are currently used because the 21st amendment supersedes the 18th.
Over 10,000 Constitutional amendments have been introduced in Congress since 1789; in a typical Congressional year in the last several decades, between 100 and 200 are offered. Most of these concepts never get out of Congressional committee, and far fewer get proposed by the Congress for ratification. Backers of some amendments have attempted the alternative, and thus-far never-utilized, method mentioned in Article Five. In two instances—reapportionment in the 1960s and a balanced federal budget during the 1970s and 1980s—these attempts have come within just two state legislative "applications" of triggering that alternative method.
Of the thirty-three amendments that have been proposed by Congress, six have failed ratification by the required three-quarters of the state legislatures—and four of those six are still technically pending before state lawmakers (see Coleman v. Miller). Starting with the 18th Amendment, each proposed amendment (except the 19th Amendment and the still-pending Child Labor Amendment of 1924) has specified a deadline for passage. The following are the unratified amendments:
Properly placed in a separate category from the other four constitutional amendments that Congress proposed to the states, but which not enough states have approved, are the following two offerings which—because of deadlines—are no longer subject to ratification.
There are currently only a few proposals for amendments which have entered mainstream political debate. These include the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, the Balanced Budget Amendment, and the Flag Desecration Amendment.
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