27 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution

• First(1791)Freedom of speech, assembly, religion, the press and to petition the government

• Second(1791) The right to bear arms

• Third(1791) No quartering of troops in homes except in time of war

• Fourth(1791) No search without a warrant

• Fifth(1791) Due process and protection of property

• Sixth(1791) Trial by jury

• Seventh(1791) Jury trial in civil cases

• Eighth(1791) No cruel and unusual punishment

• NinthRights not specifically mentioned in the constitution should not be assumed not to exist

• Tenth(1791) Rights of the states

• 11th(1795) Sovereign immunity

• 12th(1804) Electoral college reform

• 13th(1865) Slavery abolished

• 14th(1868) Equal protection under law and due process of law

• 15th(1870) Right to vote shall not be abridged because of color or previous servitude

• 16th(1913) Income Tax

• 17th(1913)Election of senators

• 18th(1919) Prohibition

• 19th(1920) Women's suffrage

• 20th(1933) Terms of office for president and Congress

• 21st(1933) Prohibition repealed

• 22nd(1951) Presidential term limits

• 23rd(1961) District of Columbia suffrage

• 24th(1964) Poll taxes abolished

• 25th(1967) Presidential disability

• 26th(1971) Voting at age 18

• 27th(1992) Congressional pay raises

The AmendmentsFirst

Freedom of speech, assembly, religion, the press and to petition

the government SecondThe right to bear arms Third

No quartering of troops in homes except in time of war Fourth

No search without a warrant FifthDue process and protection of

property SixthTrial by jury Seventh

Jury trial in civil cases EighthNo cruel and unusual punishment

NinthRights not specifically mentioned in

the constitution should not be assumed not to exist Tenth

Rights of the states 11thSovereign immunity 12th

Electoral college reform 13thSlavery abolished 14th

Equal protection under law and due process of law 15th

Right to vote shall not be abridged because of color or previous

servitude 16thIncome Tax 17th

Election of senators 18thProhibition 19th

Women's suffrage 20thTerms of office for president and

Congress 21stProhibition repealed 22nd

Presidential term limits 23rdDistrict of Columbia suffrage 24th

Poll taxes abolished 25thPresidential disability 26th

Voting at age 18 27thCongressional pay raises About the

authors, story credits We have conversed for seven generations about the kind of nation we are and the kind we

should be, ever trying to reconcile the two without doing violence to the dreams of the individuals who

subscribe to the idea that is America. Mostly, we have

succeeded. At other times, the failure has been written in the blood

of civil war. Within hours of adopting a Constitution that was talked into existence in 1787--the

founders continued the conversation by asking themselves if the ideal they had put on paper

could be made more perfect with a series of amendments. The convention that gathered in

Philadelphia rejected the idea of an attachment outlining specific rights of citizens. This is worth thinking about: On first consideration, the Founding Fathers rejected the Bill of Rights. Congress spoke back

almost immediately with 10 amendments that expanded on

what was meant to serve only as an operator's manual for the federal

government. Most states already had their own versions of these

declarations of rights in their constitutions. The states wanted an acknowledgement from the newly

strengthened federal government of certain plain concepts: liberty,

sovereignty, self-governance. As radical a document as the

Constitution was, the prospects of amending it immediately after

adoption startled some. James Jackson, representative from

Georgia, spoke vehemently on June 8, 1789, when the

amendments were put forward in Congress. "Our Constitution, sir, is

like a vessel just launched, and lying at the wharf," Jackson said. "She is untried, you can hardly

discover any one of her properties. It is not known how she will answer

her helm, or lay her course; whether she will bear with safety

the precious freight to be deposited in her hold. But, in this state, will

the prudent merchant attempt alterations? Will he employ

workmen to tear off the planking and take asunder the frame?"

James Madison, the chief framer of the Constitution, initially disliked the idea of amending the document. To

read his words, in a letter of Oct. 17, 1788, is to understand that

where some feared abuse of power by the government, he was just as fearful of a tyranny of the majority. Madison thought the chief threat to

individual rights was not from actions in which the government

was out of touch with the wishes of the majority, but "acts in which the Government is the mere instrument

of the majority number of the Constituents." The Bill of Rights, then, became a double-edged

sword, asserting, in essence, that one person and the rule of law makes a majority. It was part of

Madison's administrative genius to steer the subsequent congressional debate in a way that resulted in 10

amendments that really didn't amend anything already in the body of the new Constitution. The Bill of

Rights was less a collection of amendments than a list of

assertions defining freedom of speech and religion, the right to jury trial and the rights of states, among others. Between 1789 and 1992, 17 other amendments joined the first

10. The success of these amendments has been as varied as

their meaning. We have banned slavery and changed the date of

the present inauguration. We have banned liquor and, confronted with the futility of some banishments,

refilled the bottle. So sweeping and enduring has the national

conversation become that one of a pair of amendments dropped from the original list was rediscovered

two decades ago. Hence the newest amendment, the 27th,

limiting how Congress can raise its pay is also one of the oldest,

disinterred when a University of Texas undergraduate noticed it

lying dormant in the history books and reawakened it. Other

amendments have been proposed and set aside. The oldest would, if

adopted, expand the size of the Congress exponentially to reflect the growth in population. Can you

imagine a Congress with more than 1,000 members? Another,

constantly in play, would ban abortion. One, put forward

throughout the 1970s and 1980s would mandate a balanced federal

budget. There are two ways to amend the Constitution. Both the House and Senate may pass a

proposed amendment, each by a two-thirds majority. The

amendment must then be approved by three-quarters of the states. The other path -- never taken -- allows for two-thirds of the states to call a

constitutional convention where amendments could be passed and then sent to the states for approval.

Some emendations have been sweeping and encompassed so many concepts that to say "First

Amendment" is to invoke a litany of rights that reach from the political sign planted in a front yard to the

heavens of any imaginable concept of God. Others, such as the 25th,

which clarifies what to do if the president is incapacitated, can read

like constitutional housekeeping. One, the Ninth, is a subtle

guarantor that, simply because specific rights are protected, no one was surrendering other, unnamed

ones in the process. Changed again and again, and likely to be so in decades ahead, our Constitution is a machine that has evolved into

an organism. We have talked a nation into life. Writing to a friend in

1816, Thomas Jefferson, whose correspondence with Madison (Jefferson was ambassador to France when the Constitutional

Convention met) encouraged the creation of the Bill of Rights, saw change as the food on which the

organism would grow: "Some men look at Constitutions with

sanctimonious reverence, and deem them, like the Ark of the

Covenant, too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men

of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose

what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew that age well; I

belonged to and labored with it." Jefferson was a man capable of

understanding that he did not live in the only time that would ever be,

and that is why he favored amendments, because "laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more

developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new

truths disclosed, and manners and opinions change with the change of

circumstances, institutions must advance also and keep pace with the times." One hundred eighty-six years after Jefferson's vision, the discussion and second-guessing continue and, through it, a nation

lives and breathes. From the angry taxpayer picketing his government

to the vice president in place to take over the chief executive's job

should the unthinkable happen, the amendments to our supreme laws

are lived out in gestures as sweeping as the election of a

president or the small cry of a new voice in the world, born on our soil and guaranteed full membership in the national conversation. Back to

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