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.
Eighteenth Amendment — Prohibition
Established nationwide alcohol prohibition; later repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment.
Explore provision → Amendment 8Eighth Amendment — Bail, Fines, and Punishment
Bars excessive bail and fines and cruel and unusual punishments.
Explore provision → Amendment 11Eleventh Amendment — State Sovereign Immunity
Limits federal judicial power over certain suits against states.
Explore provision → Amendment 15Fifteenth Amendment — Voting and Race
Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Explore provision → Amendment 5Fifth Amendment — Rights of Persons
Includes grand-jury, double-jeopardy, self-incrimination, due-process, and takings protections.
Explore provision → Amendment 1First Amendment — Fundamental Freedoms
Protects religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition from specified federal abridgment; much of the amendment applies to states through incorporation doctrine.
Explore provision → Amendment 14Fourteenth 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 4Fourth Amendment — Searches and Seizures
Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures and regulates warrants.
Explore provision → Amendment 19Nineteenth Amendment — Women’s Suffrage
Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights on account of sex.
Explore provision → Amendment 9Ninth Amendment — Unenumerated Rights
States that enumerating certain rights does not deny or disparage other rights retained by the people.
Explore provision → Amendment 2Second 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.
Explore provision → Amendment 17Seventeenth Amendment — Direct Election of Senators
Provides for direct popular election of U.S. senators.
Explore provision → Amendment 7Seventh Amendment — Civil Jury Trials
Preserves civil jury trial rights in covered federal common-law actions.
Explore provision → Amendment 16Sixteenth Amendment — Federal Income Tax
Authorizes federal income taxes without apportionment among the states.
Explore provision → Amendment 6Sixth Amendment — Criminal Prosecutions
Protects rights of criminal defendants including speedy and public trial, impartial jury, notice, confrontation, compulsory process, and counsel.
Explore provision → Amendment 10Tenth Amendment — Reserved Powers
Reserves undelegated and non-prohibited powers to the states or the people.
Explore provision → Amendment 3Third Amendment — Quartering Soldiers
Restricts quartering soldiers in private homes.
Explore provision → Amendment 13Thirteenth Amendment — Abolition of Slavery
Abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime and grants Congress enforcement power.
Explore provision → Amendment 12Twelfth Amendment — Presidential Election Procedure
Revises Electoral College procedures for president and vice president.
Explore provision → Amendment 20Twentieth Amendment — Terms and Presidential Succession Timing
Changes start dates for presidential and congressional terms and addresses succession contingencies.
Explore provision → Amendment 25Twenty-Fifth Amendment — Presidential Disability and Succession
Clarifies presidential succession and procedures for presidential inability and vice-presidential vacancies.
Explore provision → Amendment 21Twenty-First Amendment — Repeal of Prohibition
Repeals the Eighteenth Amendment and gives states significant authority over alcohol importation and delivery.
Explore provision → Amendment 24Twenty-Fourth Amendment — Poll Taxes
Bars poll taxes in federal elections.
Explore provision → Amendment 22Twenty-Second Amendment — Presidential Term Limits
Limits election to the presidency to two terms, with rules for partial terms.
Explore provision → Amendment 27Twenty-Seventh Amendment — Congressional Compensation
Delays congressional pay changes until after an intervening House election.
Explore provision → Amendment 26Twenty-Sixth Amendment — Voting Age
Bars denial or abridgment of voting rights for citizens 18 or older on account of age.
Explore provision → Amendment 23Twenty-Third Amendment — District of Columbia Electors
Provides presidential electors for the District of Columbia.
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