The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times since 1788. This list of US constitutional amendments walks through each one in order, from the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791 to the Twenty-Seventh Amendment ratified in 1992. Every amendment carries the same legal weight as the original text.1Congress.gov. ArtV.1 Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1–10, Ratified 1791)
The first ten amendments were ratified together on December 15, 1791, to secure support for the new Constitution.2National Archives. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription They set hard limits on what the federal government can do to individuals.
First Amendment. Protects five freedoms: religion, speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government. Congress cannot establish an official religion or interfere with the free exercise of faith.3Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – First Amendment
Second Amendment. Protects the right to keep and bear arms, tied to the need for a well-regulated militia.4Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Second Amendment
Third Amendment. Bars the government from forcing homeowners to house soldiers during peacetime. Even in wartime, quartering must follow procedures set by law.5Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Third Amendment
Fourth Amendment. Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. Law enforcement generally needs a warrant backed by probable cause before searching your home, belongings, or person.6Congress.gov. Amdt4.5.1 Overview of Warrant Requirement Courts have carved out exceptions, including consent, searches connected to a lawful arrest, and items in plain view.7United States Courts. What Does the Fourth Amendment Mean?
Fifth Amendment. Requires a grand jury indictment for serious federal crimes, bans double jeopardy, and guarantees that no one can be forced to testify against themselves.8Congress.gov. Amdt5.3.1 Overview of Double Jeopardy Clause Its Takings Clause bars the government from seizing private property for public use without fair compensation.9Congress.gov. Amdt5.10.1 Overview of Takings Clause
Sixth Amendment. Guarantees anyone accused of a crime the right to a speedy, public trial by an impartial jury in the district where the crime happened. Defendants must be told what they are charged with, allowed to confront the witnesses against them, and given the right to a lawyer.10Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Sixth Amendment
Seventh Amendment. Preserves the right to a jury trial in federal civil lawsuits where more than twenty dollars is at stake. Courts cannot re-examine facts decided by a jury except through established legal procedures.11Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Seventh Amendment
Eighth Amendment. Forbids excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments.12Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Eighth Amendment
Ninth Amendment. Clarifies that listing certain rights in the Constitution does not mean those are the only rights people have. The Supreme Court has treated this mostly as a rule of interpretation, though it played a role in Griswold v. Connecticut, which recognized a constitutional right to privacy.13Congress.gov. Overview of Ninth Amendment, Unenumerated Rights
Tenth Amendment. Any power not given to the federal government, and not prohibited to the states, stays with the states or the people.14Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Tenth Amendment
Early Fixes: Amendments 11 and 12
Eleventh Amendment (1795). Blocks federal courts from hearing lawsuits filed against a state by citizens of a different state or by foreign nationals. It was a direct reaction to an early Supreme Court case that allowed states to be sued in federal court against their will.15Congress.gov. Amdt11.5.1 General Scope of State Sovereign Immunity
Twelfth Amendment (1804). Fixed presidential elections. Under the original system, electors cast two votes for president, and whoever finished second became vice president. That produced awkward results, including political rivals sharing an administration. The Twelfth Amendment requires electors to cast separate ballots for president and vice president.16Congress.gov. Amdt12.1 Overview of Twelfth Amendment, Election of President
The Reconstruction Amendments: 13, 14, and 15
Ratified in the years just after the Civil War, these three amendments redefined American citizenship and rights.
Thirteenth Amendment (1865). Abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States. The one exception: forced labor can still be imposed as criminal punishment for someone convicted of a crime.17Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Thirteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment (1868). Section 1 grants citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the United States and bars states from stripping the privileges of citizens. It contains the Due Process Clause, which prevents any state from taking a person’s life, liberty, or property without fair legal proceedings, and the Equal Protection Clause, which requires states to treat all people within their borders equally under the law. Section 3 also disqualifies anyone from holding federal or state office who previously swore an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection or rebellion; Congress can lift that bar only by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.18Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Fourteenth Amendment
Fifteenth Amendment (1870). Prohibits federal and state governments from denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.19Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Fifteenth Amendment
The Progressive Era: Amendments 16 Through 19
Sixteenth Amendment (1913). Gave Congress the power to tax income directly, without dividing the tax burden proportionally among the states based on population. It is the constitutional foundation for the modern federal income tax.20Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Sixteenth Amendment
Seventeenth Amendment (1913). Changed how U.S. senators are chosen. Before 1913, state legislatures picked senators. This amendment handed that power directly to voters through popular elections.21Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Seventeenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment (1919). Banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages nationwide. It is the only amendment that used the Constitution to directly prohibit a specific consumer product, and it took effect one year after ratification.22Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Eighteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment (1920). Prohibited denying the right to vote based on sex, extending suffrage to women nationwide.23Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Nineteenth Amendment
Prohibition and Its Repeal: The 21st Amendment
Twenty-First Amendment (1933). Repealed the Eighteenth Amendment. It is the only time one amendment has completely nullified another.24Congress.gov. Amdt21.S1.1 Overview of Twenty-First Amendment, Repeal of Prohibition Section 2 handed authority over alcohol regulation to individual states, which is why alcohol laws still vary widely across the country.25Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Twenty-First Amendment
Presidency and Terms: Amendments 20, 22, and 25
Twentieth Amendment (1933). Often called the “Lame Duck Amendment.” It moved the start of presidential terms from March 4 to January 20, and the start of congressional terms to January 3.26Congress.gov. Twentieth Amendment – Presidential Term and Succession
Twenty-Second Amendment (1951). Limits any person to two terms as president. Someone who has already served more than two years of another president’s term can be elected only once on their own.27Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Twenty-Second Amendment
Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967). Spells out what happens when the presidency or vice presidency becomes vacant. The vice president takes over if the president dies, resigns, or is removed. The president fills a vice-presidential vacancy with congressional approval. It also creates procedures for temporarily transferring presidential power when the president is unable to serve.28Congress.gov. Twenty-Fifth Amendment – Presidential Vacancy and Disability
Expanding the Vote: Amendments 23, 24, and 26
Twenty-Third Amendment (1961). Gave residents of Washington, D.C. the right to vote in presidential elections by granting the District electoral votes. The number cannot exceed what the least-populous state receives.29Congress.gov. Twenty-Third Amendment – District of Columbia Electors
Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964). Banned poll taxes in federal elections. Several states had used these fees for decades to keep low-income citizens, disproportionately Black voters, away from the polls.30Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Twenty-Fourth Amendment
Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971). Lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen for all elections. The reasoning: if eighteen-year-olds could be drafted and sent to war, they should have a voice in electing the government that sent them.31Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Congressional Pay: The 27th Amendment
Twenty-Seventh Amendment (1992). Any law changing congressional pay cannot take effect until after the next election for the House of Representatives, so voters get a chance to weigh in before their representatives benefit from a raise. It was originally proposed alongside the Bill of Rights in 1789 and sat dormant for more than two hundred years before finally being ratified.32Congress.gov. Twenty-Seventh Amendment – Congressional Compensation
How an Amendment Gets Added to the Constitution
Article V lays out two proposal paths. The common one requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. Alternatively, two-thirds of state legislatures (currently 34 states) can request that Congress call a national convention, though this method has never been used.1Congress.gov. ArtV.1 Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
Either way, a proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution only after three-fourths of the states (currently 38) ratify it, either through their legislatures or through specially called state conventions. The high bar is intentional.33National Constitution Center. Article V – Amendment Process
Do These Amendments Apply to State Governments?
When the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791, its protections applied only against the federal government. That changed after the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868. Over the following decades, the Supreme Court used the Due Process Clause to gradually apply most Bill of Rights protections to state and local governments, a process called incorporation.34Congress.gov. Amdt14.S1.4.1 Overview of Incorporation of the Bill of Rights
Landmarks include First Amendment free speech in 1925 (Gitlow v. New York), the right to a lawyer in 1963 (Gideon v. Wainwright), the protection against self-incrimination in 1966 (Miranda v. Arizona), and Second Amendment gun rights in 2010 (McDonald v. Chicago). A few provisions, like the Seventh Amendment’s civil jury trial guarantee, remain unincorporated.
Amendments Proposed but Never Ratified
Not every amendment that clears Congress makes it into the Constitution. Six proposed amendments received the required two-thirds vote in both chambers but failed to win ratification from three-fourths of the states.35Congress.gov. Table 1. Unratified Amendments to the US Constitution
- Congressional Apportionment Amendment (1789): would have set a formula for the size of the House of Representatives.
- Titles of Nobility Amendment (1810): would have stripped citizenship from anyone who accepted a foreign title of nobility.
- Corwin Amendment (1861): would have permanently protected slavery from federal interference. Proposed on the eve of the Civil War, it was quickly overtaken by events.
- Child Labor Amendment (1924): would have given Congress the power to regulate child labor. Federal child labor laws were eventually upheld under the Commerce Clause, making the amendment unnecessary.
- Equal Rights Amendment (1972): would prohibit denying equality of rights based on sex. Though 38 states eventually ratified it, three did so after a congressionally imposed deadline. As of early 2025, the Archivist of the United States has declined to certify it as part of the Constitution, citing the expired deadline.
- D.C. Voting Rights Amendment (1978): would have treated the District of Columbia as a state for purposes of congressional representation and presidential elections. It expired in 1985 after only 16 states ratified it.
Ratification has no built-in expiration unless Congress attaches one. When Congress does set a deadline, as it did with the ERA and D.C. Voting Rights Amendment, that clock can determine whether widespread support arrives in time.