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The Constitution

The Constitution article by article, plus the amendments that changed how the government is structured.

Article I: The Legislative Branch
The longest article of the Constitution, creating Congress, listing its powers, and limiting both Congress and the states
Article II: The Executive Branch
The article that creates the presidency in four sections, leaving much of the office's power to interpretation
Article III: The Judicial Branch
Three short sections that create the Supreme Court, protect judges, define federal jurisdiction, and define treason
Article IV: The States
The article that governs relations among the states and between the states and the national government, from full faith and credit to new states and territories
Article V: The Amendment Process
The article that sets the two-step process for amending the Constitution, requiring supermajorities in Congress or the states and ratification by three-fourths of the states
Article VI: Supremacy, Oaths, and Debts
The article that honors the nation's prior debts, makes federal law supreme, binds officials by oath to the Constitution, and forbids religious tests for office
Article VII: Ratification
The final article, which made the Constitution effective once conventions in nine states approved it, bypassing the Articles of Confederation's unanimity rule
The Articles of Confederation Dissolved
The first national constitution, in force from 1781 to 1789, which created a league of sovereign states with a weak Congress and no executive or national courts
The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1791, which limit government power and protect individual liberties, now applied to the states as well
The Constitution of the United States
The supreme law of the land: seven articles and twenty-seven amendments that structure the federal government
The Federalist Papers
The 85 essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay, published as Publius in 1787 and 1788, that explain and defend the Constitution's structure
The Preamble
The Constitution's 52-word opening: who ordains it and the six purposes it serves
The Seventeenth Amendment
The 1913 amendment providing for the direct election of senators by the voters of each state, replacing election by state legislatures
The Twelfth Amendment
The 1804 amendment requiring electors to cast separate votes for President and Vice President, adopted after the deadlocked election of 1800
The Twentieth Amendment
The 1933 Lame Duck Amendment, which moved Inauguration Day to January 20 and the start of Congress to January 3, and set rules for a President-elect's death
The Twenty-fifth Amendment
The 1967 amendment that clarifies presidential succession, provides for filling a vice presidential vacancy, and sets procedures for presidential disability
The Twenty-second Amendment
The 1951 amendment limiting a President to two elected terms, written into the Constitution after Franklin Roosevelt won four
The Twenty-seventh Amendment
The amendment barring a congressional pay change from taking effect until after the next House election, proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992