List of amendments to the United States Constitution

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This is the complete list of the ratified and unratified amendments to the United States Constitution which received the approval of the United States Congress. Twenty-seven amendments have been ratified since the original signing of the Constitution, the first ten of which are known collectively as the Bill of Rights. The procedure for amending the United States Constitution is governed by Article V of the original text. There have been many other proposals for amendments to the United States Constitution introduced in Congress, but not submitted to the states.

Before an amendment can take effect, it must be proposed to the states by a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress or by a convention called by two-thirds of the states, and ratified by three-fourths of the states or by three-fourths of conventions thereof, the method of ratification being determined by Congress at the time of proposal. To date, no convention for proposing amendments has been called by the states, and only once - in 1933 for the ratification of the twenty-first amendment - has the convention method of ratification been employed.

Ratified amendments

#	Amendments	Proposal date	Enactment date	Full text
1st	Protects the freedom of religion, speech, and the press, as well as the right to assemble and petition the government	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
2nd	Protects an individual's right to bear arms	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
3rd	Prohibits the forced quartering of soldiers out of war time	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
4th	Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements for search warrants based on probable cause	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
5th	Sets out rules for indictment by grand jury and eminent domain, protects the right to due process, and prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
6th	Protects the right to a fair and speedy public trial by jury, including the rights to be notified of the accusations, to confront the accuser, to obtain witnesses and to retain counsel	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
7th	Provides for the right to trial by jury in certain civil cases, according to common law	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
8th	Prohibits excessive fines and excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
9th	Protects rights not enumerated in the constitution.	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
10th	Limits the powers of the federal government to those delegated to it by the Constitution	September 25, 1789	December 15, 1791	Full text
11th	Immunity of states from suits from out-of-state citizens and foreigners not living within the state borders. Lays the foundation for sovereign immunity	March 4, 1794	February 7, 1795	Full text
12th	Revises presidential election procedures	December 9, 1803	June 15, 1804	Full text
13th	Abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime	January 31, 1865	December 6, 1865	Full text
14th	Defines citizenship, contains the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, and deals with post-Civil War issues	June 13, 1866	July 9, 1868	Full text
15th	Prohibits the denial of suffrage based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude	February 26, 1869	February 3, 1870	Full text
16th	Allows the federal government to collect income tax	July 12, 1909	February 3, 1913	Full text
17th	Establishes the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote	May 13, 1912	April 8, 1913	Full text
18th	Establishes Prohibition of alcohol (Repealed by Twenty-first Amendment)	December 18, 1917	January 16, 1919	Full text
19th	Establishes women's suffrage	June 4, 1919	August 18, 1920	Full text
20th	Fixes the dates of term commencements for Congress (January 3) and the President (January 20); known as the "lame duck amendment"	March 2, 1932	January 23, 1933	Full text
21st	Repeals the Eighteenth Amendment	February 20, 1933	December 5, 1933	Full text
22nd	Limits the president to two terms, or a maximum of 10 years (i.e., if a Vice President serves not more than one half of a President's term, he or she can be elected to a further two terms)	March 24, 1947	February 27, 1951	Full text
23rd	Provides for representation of Washington, D.C. in the Electoral College	June 16, 1960	March 29, 1961	Full text
24th	Prohibits the revocation of voting rights due to the non-payment of poll taxes	September 14, 1962	January 23, 1964	Full text
25th	Codifies the Tyler Precedent; defines the process of presidential succession	July 6, 1965	February 10, 1967	Full text
26th	Establishes the official voting age to be 18 years old.	March 23, 1971	July 1, 1971	Full text
27th	Prevents laws affecting Congressional salary from taking effect until the beginning of the next session of Congress	September 25, 1789	May 5 or 7, 1992	Full text	Full text

Proposed amendments

Only ten of the twelve amendments that constituted the original Bill of Rights were ratified by the states in the late 18th century; one more was ratified two centuries later.

Main article: List of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution

Six amendments have been passed by Congress and proposed but then did not get ratified by the appropriate number of states' legislatures. Four of these amendments are still technically pending before state lawmakers, one has expired by its own terms, and one has expired by the terms of the resolution proposing it (though that expiration is disputed).

Amendment	Date Proposed	Status	Subject
Congressional Apportionment Amendment	September 25, 1789	Still pending before state lawmakers	Apportionment of U.S. Representatives
Titles of Nobility Amendment	May 1, 1810	Still pending before state lawmakers	Prohibition of titles of nobility
Corwin Amendment	March 2, 1861	Still pending before state lawmakers	Preservation of slavery
Child Labor Amendment	June 2, 1924	Still pending before state lawmakers	Congressional power to regulate child labor
Equal Rights Amendment	March 22, 1972	Expired 1979 or 1982 (some scholars disagree -- see main article), though possibly still able to be ratified as deadline has previously been extended and deadline was not placed in the Amendment's text.	Prohibition of inequality of men and women
District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment	August 22, 1978	Expired 1985; cannot be revived as the deadline was in the amendment's text.	D.C. voting rights

See also

• Convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution
• State ratifying conventions

References

• Congressional Research Service. (1992). The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation. (Senate Document No. 103–6). (Johnny H. Killian and George A. Costello, Eds.). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

External links

• The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation is available at:
  • GPO Access - Official version of the document at the U.S. Government Printing Office.
  • FindLaw – FindLaw's version of the official document; incorporates 1996 and 1998 supplements into text, but does not include prefatory material included in official version.
  • Constitutional Amendments contains original document scan, transcribed text, PDF, Word, online stream and MP3 version for Amendments 1-27.
  • U.S. Constitution Online