The U.S. Constitution contains seven articles. Each one sets up a different piece of how the federal government is built and how it operates, from Congress and the presidency down to the process for changing the document itself. The seven articles were drafted in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787, signed on September 17 of that year, and they remain the supreme law of the country.1National Archives. Constitution of the United States (1787)
Twenty-seven amendments have been added over the centuries, but those are separate from the seven articles and sit at the end of the document. The Constitution also opens with a Preamble, a single sentence beginning “We the People” that lays out six broad goals for the government but carries no enforceable legal power on its own.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – The Preamble The count of seven refers to the articles themselves.
Article I: Congress
Article I is by far the longest of the seven, and that length is deliberate. The framers treated Congress as the branch closest to the people, so they spelled out its powers and limits in detail. It creates a two-chamber legislature: the House of Representatives and the Senate. House members must be at least twenty-five and U.S. citizens for at least seven years; Senators must be at least thirty and citizens for at least nine.3Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article I
Section 8 lists what Congress can actually do. It can collect taxes, borrow money, regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations, coin money, establish post offices, declare war, and raise and fund armies.4Congress.gov. Article I Section 8 At the end of that list sits the Necessary and Proper Clause, sometimes called the Elastic Clause, which lets Congress pass laws needed to carry out those listed powers.5Constitution Annotated. Overview of Necessary and Proper Clause
Article I also draws lines Congress cannot cross. Section 9 bars Congress from suspending habeas corpus except during rebellion or invasion, and it prohibits bills of attainder (laws that punish a named person without a trial) and ex post facto laws (laws that criminalize conduct after the fact).
Article II: The Presidency
Article II places all executive power in a single person: the President of the United States. The Vice President is elected alongside the President, but executive authority belongs to the President alone. Eligibility requires being a natural-born citizen, at least thirty-five years old, and a U.S. resident for at least fourteen years.6Legal Information Institute. U.S. Constitution – Article II
The President is chosen through the Electoral College. Each state appoints a number of electors equal to its total congressional representation, and those electors cast the votes that decide the outcome. Under Article II, the President serves as Commander in Chief of the armed forces, grants pardons for federal offenses (except in impeachment cases), negotiates treaties with the consent of two-thirds of the Senate, and appoints federal officers and judges subject to Senate confirmation.
Article II also provides the way to remove a sitting President, Vice President, or other federal officer. The grounds are treason, bribery, or “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”7Congress.gov. Article II Section 4 The House votes to impeach, and the Senate holds a trial. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate and results in removal from office.
Article III: The Federal Courts
Article III creates the Supreme Court and gives Congress the authority to establish lower federal courts.8Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article III Federal judges hold their positions “during good Behaviour,” which in practice means lifetime tenure unless they resign, retire, or are impeached and removed. That protection was designed to insulate them from political pressure.9Constitution Annotated. Good Behavior Clause Doctrine
Federal court jurisdiction reaches cases arising under the Constitution and federal laws, disputes involving ambassadors, admiralty cases, and controversies between states or between citizens of different states. Article III also defines treason narrowly: waging war against the country or aiding its enemies, with conviction requiring either two witnesses to the same act or a confession in open court.
The power of judicial review, which lets courts strike down laws that conflict with the Constitution, is not written into Article III. The Supreme Court established that doctrine in the 1803 case Marbury v. Madison.10Constitution Annotated. Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review
Article IV: The States
Article IV governs how states deal with each other and with the federal government. The Full Faith and Credit Clause requires every state to honor the public laws, records, and court judgments of the others.11Congress.gov. Full Faith and Credit Clause The Privileges and Immunities Clause in Section 2 blocks states from discriminating against citizens of other states in fundamental matters like earning a living or accessing the courts.12Constitution Annotated. Overview of Privileges and Immunities Clause States can still limit voting and officeholding to their own residents.
Article IV also lays out the process for admitting new states and guarantees every state a republican form of government along with federal protection against invasion and domestic violence.13Constitution Annotated. Historical Background on Guarantee of Republican Form of Government
Article V: How the Constitution Gets Amended
Article V sets out how to change the Constitution, and the process is deliberately hard. Amendments can be proposed in two ways: by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, or by a national convention called at the request of two-thirds of state legislatures. The convention method has never been used. Once proposed, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states, either through their legislatures or through special ratifying conventions, depending on what Congress specifies.14Congress.gov. Article V – Amending the Constitution
That high bar explains why, out of thousands of amendments introduced in Congress over the centuries, only twenty-seven have made it through.
Article VI: Federal Supremacy and Oaths
Article VI does three things. The Supremacy Clause declares that the Constitution, federal statutes made under it, and treaties are the supreme law of the land, and it binds state judges to follow federal law even when it conflicts with their own state’s constitution or legislation.15Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Article VI It also requires all federal and state legislators, executive officers, and judges to take an oath to support the Constitution. And it prohibits any religious test as a qualification for holding federal office, a provision that predated the First Amendment’s religious liberty protections by several years.16Congress.gov. Article VI Clause 3 – Oaths of Office
Article VII: Ratification
Article VII is the shortest of the seven and served a transitional purpose. It set the rule that the Constitution would take effect once nine of the original thirteen states ratified it through special conventions.17Congress.gov. Article VII Delaware ratified first, on December 7, 1787. New Hampshire became the ninth state on June 21, 1788, which technically brought the Constitution into force, though the new government did not begin operating until 1789. The remaining four states eventually ratified as well, with Rhode Island holding out the longest.
What Sits Outside the Seven Articles
Anything beyond those seven articles lives in the amendments. Twenty-seven have been ratified since 1788, starting with the Bill of Rights in 1791 and running through the Twenty-Seventh Amendment in 1992. Amendments carry the same legal weight as the original articles, and when an amendment contradicts earlier text, the amendment controls. But when someone asks how many articles the Constitution contains, the answer is seven, and it has stayed seven since the document was signed.