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
Proposed by Congress December 9, 1803Ratified June 15, 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
Proposed by Congress January 31, 1865Ratified
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 AMENDMENT by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XIV
Proposed by Congress June 13, 1866Ratified
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 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 AMENDMENT.
Amendment XV
Proposed by Congress February 26, 1869Ratified
February 17, 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 AMENDMENT by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XVI
Proposed by Congress July 12, 1909Ratified
February 3, 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
or enumeration.
Amendment XVII
Proposed by Congress May 13, 1912Ratified
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 legislature.
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
Proposed by Congress December 18, 1917Ratified
January 16, 1919
Section 1. After one year from
the ratification of this AMENDMENT, 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 AMENDMENT
by appropriate legislation.
Section 3. This AMENDMENT 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 Congress.
Amendment XIX
Proposed by Congress June 4, 1919Ratified
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 States on account of sex.
The Congress shall have power by appropriate legislation
to enforce the provisions of this AMENDMENT.
Amendment XX
Proposed by Congress March 2, 1932Ratified
January 23, 1933
Section 1. The terms of the
President and Vice-President shall end at noon on the twentieth day
of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon
on the third day of January, of the years in which such terms would
have ended if this AMENDMENT 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 third 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 AMENDMENT.
Section 6. This AMENDMENT 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
Proposed by Congress February 20, 1933Ratified
December 5, 1933
Section 1. The eighteenth AMENDMENT
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. The AMENDMENT 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
Proposed by Congress March 21, 1947Ratified
February 27, 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 AMENDMENT shall not apply to any person holding the office of
President when this AMENDMENT 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 AMENDMENT
becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as
President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2. This AMENDMENT 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
Proposed by Congress June 17, 1960Ratified
March 29, 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 AMENDMENT of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall
have power to enforce this AMENDMENT by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXIV
Proposed by Congress March 27, 1962Ratified
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 any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2. The Congress shall
have power to enforce this AMENDMENT by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXV
Proposed by Congress February 19, 1965Ratified
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 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 day 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
Proposed by Congress March 10, 1871Ratified
July 1, 1971
Section 1. The right of citizens
of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State
on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall
have power to enforce this AMENDMENT by appropriate legislation.
Amendment XXVII
Proposed by Congress September 25, 1789Ratified
May 7, 1992
Section 1. No law, varying the
compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives,
shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have
intervened.