All 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, listed in order, span from the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791 to the congressional pay amendment ratified in 1992. The first ten arrived together as a single package; the remaining seventeen were added one at a time as the country worked through slavery, voting rights, taxation, presidential power, and the mechanics of elections. Each carries the same legal weight as the original 1788 text, and each required a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress followed by ratification from three-fourths of the states.1National Archives. Article V, U.S. Constitution
Amendments 1 Through 10: The Bill of Rights (1791)
The first ten amendments were ratified together on December 15, 1791, designed to limit the federal government’s power over individuals and the states.2National Archives. Bill of Rights (1791)
- First Amendment. Bars Congress from establishing an official religion or restricting religious practice, and protects freedom of speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government.3Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – First Amendment
- Second Amendment. Protects the right to keep and bear arms in connection with a well-regulated militia.4Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Second Amendment
- Third Amendment. Prohibits the government from housing soldiers in private homes during peacetime without the owner’s consent. Wartime quartering must follow procedures set by law.5Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Third Amendment
- Fourth Amendment. Guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The government needs probable cause and a specific warrant before searching a person’s home, belongings, or papers.6Constitution Annotated. Amdt4.5.3 Probable Cause Requirement
- Fifth Amendment. Requires a grand jury indictment for serious criminal charges, bans double jeopardy, and protects against forced self-incrimination. It guarantees due process before the government takes anyone’s life, liberty, or property, and requires fair compensation when private property is seized for public use.7Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fifth Amendment
- Sixth Amendment. Guarantees a speedy, public trial by an impartial jury in criminal cases. The accused has the right to know the charges, confront witnesses, and have a lawyer.8Congress.gov. Amdt6.2.1 Overview of Right to a Speedy Trial
- Seventh Amendment. Preserves the right to a jury trial in federal civil cases where the amount in dispute exceeds twenty dollars.9Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Seventh Amendment
- Eighth Amendment. Forbids excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.10Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Eighth Amendment
- Ninth Amendment. Clarifies that listing certain rights in the Constitution does not mean the people lack other rights not specifically mentioned.11Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Ninth Amendment
- Tenth Amendment. Reserves all powers not given to the federal government to the states or to the people.12Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Tenth Amendment
One point worth knowing about the Bill of Rights: it originally applied only to the federal government. State governments were not bound by it until the twentieth century, when the Supreme Court began using the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause to apply individual protections to the states one at a time through a doctrine called selective incorporation.13Constitution Annotated. Amdt14.S1.4.1 Overview of Incorporation of the Bill of Rights Nearly every protection in the first ten amendments has since been made enforceable against state governments.
Amendments 11 and 12: Fixing the Original Design
Eleventh Amendment (1795). Blocks federal courts from hearing lawsuits filed against a state by citizens of a different state or by foreign nationals, protecting state governments from a wide category of federal litigation.14Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Eleventh Amendment
Twelfth Amendment (1804). Requires electors in the Electoral College to cast separate ballots for president and vice president. Under the original system, each elector cast two votes for president and the runner-up became vice president. That arrangement produced a tie between Thomas Jefferson and his own running mate Aaron Burr in 1800, throwing the election into a prolonged House battle. The Twelfth Amendment prevents that kind of deadlock.15Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution – Twelfth Amendment
Amendments 13 Through 15: Reconstruction
Thirteenth Amendment (1865). Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, with one narrow exception permitting involuntary servitude as punishment for someone convicted of a crime.16Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Thirteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment (1868). Created a national definition of citizenship: anyone born or naturalized in the United States is a citizen of both the country and the state where they live. It also barred states from denying any person due process of law or equal protection under the law, and those two clauses became the foundation for nearly every major civil rights case in American history.17Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 also disqualifies from federal or state office anyone who swore an oath to support the Constitution as an official and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion. Congress can lift that disqualification only by a two-thirds vote in both chambers.18Constitution Annotated. Fourteenth Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment (1870). Prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous enslavement.19Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fifteenth Amendment Many states used literacy tests, poll taxes, and other workarounds to suppress Black voters for nearly a century afterward, but the amendment set the constitutional principle that later civil rights laws built on.
Amendments 16 and 17: The Progressive Era
Both amendments were ratified in 1913.
Sixteenth Amendment. Gave Congress the power to collect an income tax without dividing the revenue requirement among states based on population.20Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Sixteenth Amendment It was a direct response to an 1895 Supreme Court decision that had struck down a federal income tax as an unapportioned “direct tax.”
Seventeenth Amendment. Took the power to choose U.S. senators away from state legislatures and gave it directly to voters through popular election.21National Archives. 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – Direct Election of U.S. Senators (1913) Under the original Constitution, state legislators picked senators, a process that had become plagued by corruption and deadlock.22Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Seventeenth Amendment
Amendments 18 Through 21: Prohibition, Suffrage, and Lame Ducks
Eighteenth Amendment (1919). Banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages nationwide.23Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Eighteenth Amendment It lasted 14 years.
Nineteenth Amendment (1920). Prohibited the federal government and the states from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex, guaranteeing women’s suffrage across the country.24Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Nineteenth Amendment
Twentieth Amendment (1933). Shortened the gap between Election Day and the start of new terms. It moved presidential inaugurations from March 4 to January 20 and the start of congressional sessions to January 3.25Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twentieth Amendment
Twenty-First Amendment (1933). Repealed the Eighteenth Amendment, ending national prohibition and returning alcohol regulation to the states. It is the only amendment that has ever repealed a previous one.26Constitution Annotated. Amdt21.S1.1 Overview of Twenty-First Amendment, Repeal of Prohibition
Amendments 22 Through 27: Modern Additions
Twenty-Second Amendment (1951). Capped the presidency at two elected terms. The amendment was a direct reaction to Franklin D. Roosevelt winning four consecutive presidential elections. A person who takes over the presidency with more than two years left in someone else’s term can only be elected once on their own; with two years or less remaining, they can still run twice.27Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Second Amendment
Twenty-Third Amendment (1961). Gave residents of Washington, D.C. the right to vote in presidential elections by granting the District electors in the Electoral College. The number cannot exceed the number held by the least populous state, which in practice gives D.C. three electoral votes.28Congress.gov. Overview of Twenty-Third Amendment, District of Columbia Electors
Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964). Banned poll taxes and any other tax as a condition for voting in federal elections.29Constitution Annotated. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Fourth Amendment Poll taxes had been used for decades to prevent low-income citizens, disproportionately Black voters in the South, from casting ballots.
Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967). Created detailed rules for presidential succession and disability. It covers four situations:30Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Fifth Amendment
- If the president dies, resigns, or is removed, the vice president becomes president.
- If the vice presidency is vacant, the president nominates a replacement who takes office after a majority vote of both chambers of Congress.
- A president who is temporarily unable to serve can transfer power to the vice president in writing and reclaim it the same way.
- If the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet declare the president unable to serve, the vice president takes over as acting president. The president can dispute the declaration, in which case Congress decides by a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971). Lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen for all elections. During the Vietnam War, eighteen-year-olds were being drafted and sent into combat but could not vote for the leaders making those decisions, and the slogan “old enough to fight, old enough to vote” carried the amendment to ratification.31Legal Information Institute. U.S. Constitution Annotated – Amdt26.1.1 Overview of Twenty-Sixth Amendment, Reduction of Voting Age
Twenty-Seventh Amendment (1992). Prevents any pay raise Congress votes for itself from taking effect until after the next House election. The amendment was originally proposed by James Madison in 1789 alongside the Bill of Rights and sat unratified for 203 years before a college student’s research project in the 1980s reignited a state-by-state ratification campaign that finally crossed the finish line.32Congress.gov. Twenty-Seventh Amendment – Congressional Compensation