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Constitution Explorer

Browse the Constitution by preamble, Articles, amendments, and high-value clauses, with issue connections and links to official government analysis and original documents.

Article 1

Article I — Legislative Branch

Creates Congress and defines federal legislative powers, limits, elections, and lawmaking structure.

Explore provision → Article I §1

Article I, Section 1 — Legislative Vesting Clause

Vests federal legislative powers in a bicameral Congress and is central to separation-of-powers analysis.

Explore provision → Article I §8 cl. 3

Article I, Section 8 — Commerce Clause

Empowers Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the states, and with Indian tribes; its scope is central to federal regulatory power.

Explore provision → Article I §8 cl. 18

Article I, Section 8 — Necessary and Proper Clause

Authorizes laws necessary and proper for carrying enumerated federal powers into execution.

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Article I, Section 8 — Taxing and Spending Power

Authorizes specified federal taxation and spending for debts, common defense, and general welfare, subject to constitutional limits.

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Article II — Executive Branch

Creates the presidency and establishes core executive powers, duties, election mechanics, and impeachment-related structure.

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Article II, Section 1 — Executive Vesting Clause

Vests federal executive power in the President and anchors major debates over presidential authority.

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Article III — Judicial Branch

Establishes the federal judiciary and defines the scope of federal judicial power.

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Article III, Section 1 — Judicial Power

Vests federal judicial power in one Supreme Court and lower federal courts Congress may establish.

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Article IV — States and Federalism

Governs relationships among states and several duties between states and the federal union.

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Article V — Amendment Process

Establishes the process for proposing and ratifying constitutional amendments.

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Article VI — Supremacy Clause

Makes the Constitution, valid federal laws, and treaties the supreme law of the land, binding state judges.

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Article VI — Supreme Law

Includes federal supremacy, public-debt continuity, and oath requirements while barring religious tests for federal office.

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Article VII — Ratification

Sets the original ratification rule for the Constitution.

Explore provision → Amendment 18

Eighteenth Amendment — Prohibition

Established nationwide alcohol prohibition; later repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment.

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Eighth Amendment — Bail, Fines, and Punishment

Bars excessive bail and fines and cruel and unusual punishments.

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Eighth Amendment — Excessive Bail Clause

Prohibits excessive bail and informs constitutional limits on pretrial detention practices.

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Eleventh Amendment — State Sovereign Immunity

Limits federal judicial power over certain suits against states.

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Fifteenth Amendment — Voting and Race

Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

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Fifth Amendment — Due Process Clause

Forbids federal deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

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Fifth Amendment — Rights of Persons

Includes grand-jury, double-jeopardy, self-incrimination, due-process, and takings protections.

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Fifth Amendment — Takings Clause

Requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use.

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First Amendment — Fundamental Freedoms

Protects religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition from specified federal abridgment; much of the amendment applies to states through incorporation doctrine.

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First Amendment — Religion Clauses

Contains the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses governing government and religion.

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First Amendment — Speech and Press Clauses

Protects speech and press from government abridgment subject to constitutional doctrine defining protected and unprotected categories.

Explore provision → Amendment XIV §1

Fourteenth Amendment — Citizenship Clause

Constitutionalizes national and state citizenship for persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction.

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Fourteenth Amendment — Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection

Defines citizenship and restricts state action through privileges or immunities, due process, and equal protection guarantees.

Explore provision → Amendment XIV §1

Fourteenth Amendment — Due Process Clause

Restricts states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and is the vehicle for incorporation of many Bill of Rights protections.

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Fourteenth Amendment — Equal Protection Clause

Requires states to provide equal protection of the laws and anchors major constitutional equality doctrines.

Explore provision → Amendment IV

Fourth Amendment — Search and Seizure

Protects against unreasonable government searches and seizures and provides warrant requirements.

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Fourth Amendment — Searches and Seizures

Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures and regulates warrants.

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Nineteenth Amendment — Women’s Suffrage

Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights on account of sex.

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Ninth Amendment — Unenumerated Rights

States that enumerating certain rights does not deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.

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Preamble

States the Constitution’s introductory purposes, including union, justice, domestic tranquility, common defense, general welfare, and liberty.

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Second Amendment — Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Protects an individual right to keep and bear arms under modern Supreme Court doctrine, subject to constitutional analysis of firearm regulations.

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Second Amendment — Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Protects the right to keep and bear arms under the Supreme Court’s modern individual-right doctrine.

Explore provision → Amendment 17

Seventeenth Amendment — Direct Election of Senators

Provides for direct popular election of U.S. senators.

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Seventh Amendment — Civil Jury Trials

Preserves civil jury trial rights in covered federal common-law actions.

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Sixteenth Amendment — Federal Income Tax

Authorizes federal income taxes without apportionment among the states.

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Sixth Amendment — Assistance of Counsel

Protects the right to assistance of counsel in criminal prosecutions under constitutional doctrine.

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Sixth Amendment — Criminal Prosecutions

Protects rights of criminal defendants including speedy and public trial, impartial jury, notice, confrontation, compulsory process, and counsel.

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Tenth Amendment — Reserved Powers

Reserves undelegated and non-prohibited powers to the states or the people.

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Tenth Amendment — Reserved Powers

Reserves powers not delegated to the United States nor prohibited to the states to the states or the people.

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Third Amendment — Quartering Soldiers

Restricts quartering soldiers in private homes.

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Thirteenth Amendment — Abolition of Slavery

Abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime and grants Congress enforcement power.

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Twelfth Amendment — Presidential Election Procedure

Revises Electoral College procedures for president and vice president.

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Twentieth Amendment — Terms and Presidential Succession Timing

Changes start dates for presidential and congressional terms and addresses succession contingencies.

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Twenty-Fifth Amendment — Presidential Disability and Succession

Clarifies presidential succession and procedures for presidential inability and vice-presidential vacancies.

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Twenty-First Amendment — Repeal of Prohibition

Repeals the Eighteenth Amendment and gives states significant authority over alcohol importation and delivery.

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Twenty-Fourth Amendment — Poll Taxes

Bars poll taxes in federal elections.

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Twenty-Second Amendment — Presidential Term Limits

Limits election to the presidency to two terms, with rules for partial terms.

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Twenty-Seventh Amendment — Congressional Compensation

Delays congressional pay changes until after an intervening House election.

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Twenty-Sixth Amendment — Voting Age

Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights for citizens 18 or older on account of age.

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Twenty-Third Amendment — District of Columbia Electors

Provides presidential electors for the District of Columbia.

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