The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times since it was ratified in 1788. The first ten US constitutional amendments, ratified together in 1791, make up the Bill of Rights and protect individual freedoms. The other 17 were added one at a time over the next two centuries and cover everything from ending slavery to expanding the right to vote to setting rules for presidential succession.1National Archives. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription
The Bill of Rights: Amendments 1 Through 10
Ratified on December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments protect individual freedoms against overreach by the federal government.1National Archives. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription Through a legal development called incorporation, the Supreme Court has applied most of them to state and local governments as well, using the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.2Legal Information Institute. Incorporation Doctrine
- First Amendment. Prohibits Congress from establishing an official religion or restricting religious practice. Protects freedom of speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and the right to petition the government.
- Second Amendment. Protects the right to keep and bear arms in connection with a well-regulated militia.
- Third Amendment. Prevents the government from forcing homeowners to house soldiers during peacetime.
- Fourth Amendment. Requires law enforcement to obtain a warrant supported by probable cause before searching a person’s home, belongings, or body. The Supreme Court extended this protection to digital data in Riley v. California (2014), ruling that police need a warrant to search a cell phone during an arrest.3Justia. Riley v California, 573 US 373 (2014)
- Fifth Amendment. Guarantees due process of law, protects against being forced to testify against yourself, and prevents the government from trying you twice for the same offense (double jeopardy). Also requires the government to pay fair market value when it takes private property for public use, a power called eminent domain.4Legal Information Institute. Eminent Domain
- Sixth Amendment. Guarantees anyone facing criminal charges a speedy, public trial by an impartial jury, the right to know the charges and evidence, and the right to a lawyer. If a defendant cannot afford one, the court appoints an attorney at no cost under the Criminal Justice Act.
- Seventh Amendment. Preserves the right to a jury trial in certain federal civil cases where the amount in dispute exceeds twenty dollars.
- Eighth Amendment. Forbids excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishments.
- Ninth Amendment. Clarifies that the rights listed in the Constitution are not the only rights people hold. The government cannot deny a right simply because the Constitution does not name it.
- Tenth Amendment. Reserves all powers not specifically given to the federal government to the states or to the people.
The Reconstruction Amendments: 13, 14, and 15
Three amendments passed after the Civil War reshaped American citizenship and civil rights.5National Archives. 13th Amendment to the US Constitution – Abolition of Slavery (1865)
The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the country, with a narrow exception allowing it as criminal punishment.5National Archives. 13th Amendment to the US Constitution – Abolition of Slavery (1865)
The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) granted citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the United States and bars any state from denying a person due process of law or equal protection under the law.6Legal Information Institute. 14th Amendment Its Equal Protection Clause became the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which struck down racial segregation in public schools.7National Archives. Brown v Board of Education (1954) Its Due Process Clause is also the mechanism the Supreme Court has used to apply most of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments.
The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or having previously been enslaved.8Legal Information Institute. 15th Amendment
Amendments That Changed Voting and Elections
Six amendments reshaped how elections work and who gets to vote.
The Twelfth Amendment (1804) fixed an early flaw in the Electoral College. The original system automatically made the runner-up in the presidential race the Vice President; the Twelfth Amendment requires electors to cast separate ballots for the two offices.9Legal Information Institute. 12th Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment (1913) changed how U.S. Senators are chosen. Before this amendment, state legislatures picked them; now voters in each state elect them directly.
The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) prohibited denying the right to vote based on sex, securing women’s suffrage nationwide.10Library of Congress. Nineteenth Amendment
The Twenty-Third Amendment (1961) granted residents of Washington, D.C., the right to vote in presidential elections by giving the District electors, though never more than the least populous state receives.
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) banned poll taxes, which had been used to keep low-income citizens, disproportionately Black voters in the South, from casting ballots in federal elections.
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. The change came during the Vietnam War era, driven by the argument that people old enough for military service should be old enough to vote.
Amendments on Government Structure and Federal Power
The remaining amendments deal with how the federal government is organized, how it raises money, how power transfers between leaders, and one short-lived experiment in social regulation.
Sovereign Immunity and Federal Taxation
The Eleventh Amendment (1795) limits the ability of private individuals to sue a state in federal court, reinforcing state sovereign immunity from certain lawsuits.11Library of Congress. Eleventh Amendment
The Sixteenth Amendment (1913) gave Congress the power to tax income without dividing the total among states based on population. It cleared the way for the modern federal income tax, which currently uses seven brackets with rates from 10 percent to 37 percent.12Legal Information Institute. 16th Amendment13Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
Prohibition and Its Repeal
The Eighteenth Amendment (1919) banned the production, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. Prohibition lasted until the Twenty-First Amendment repealed it in 1933, returning alcohol regulation to the states. The Twenty-First is the only amendment that repeals a previous one.
Presidential Terms, Succession, and Transitions
The Twentieth Amendment (1933) moved the start of the presidential term from March 4 to January 20 and the start of congressional terms to January 3, shortening the gap between Election Day and the swearing-in of new officials.
The Twenty-Second Amendment (1951) limits the presidency to two elected terms. A person who takes over as President partway through someone else’s term can still be elected twice on their own, as long as the inherited portion was two years or less, meaning the theoretical maximum is roughly ten years in office.14Library of Congress. Twenty-Second Amendment
The Twenty-Fifth Amendment (1967) sets out what happens when the presidency or vice presidency becomes vacant and how power transfers if the President is unable to serve. It has four sections:
- Section 1. If the President dies, resigns, or is removed, the Vice President becomes President.
- Section 2. If the vice presidency is vacant, the President nominates a replacement, who takes office after a majority vote in both chambers of Congress.
- Section 3. The President can voluntarily transfer power to the Vice President by notifying congressional leaders in writing, and can reclaim it the same way.
- Section 4. The Vice President and a majority of the Cabinet can declare the President unable to serve. If the President disputes the declaration, Congress decides, and keeping the Vice President in charge requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers.
Beyond the Vice President, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (a statute, not an amendment) runs the line through the Speaker of the House, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, and then Cabinet members in the order their departments were created.15USAGov. Order of Presidential Succession
Congressional Pay
The Twenty-Seventh Amendment (1992) prevents Congress from giving itself an immediate pay raise. Any change in congressional salary cannot take effect until after the next House election, giving voters a chance to weigh in first. Originally proposed in 1789 alongside the Bill of Rights, it took more than 200 years to ratify.
How a New Amendment Gets Added
Article V of the Constitution lays out two ways to propose an amendment and two ways to ratify one.16National Archives. Article V, US Constitution
An amendment can be proposed by a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, or by a national convention called at the request of two-thirds of the state legislatures. Every amendment so far has come through Congress; the convention route has never been used.17Legal Information Institute. Proposals by Convention
Once proposed, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states, currently 38 out of 50. States can ratify through their legislatures or through special ratifying conventions, depending on what Congress specifies. The convention method of ratification has been used only once, for the Twenty-First Amendment repealing Prohibition.16National Archives. Article V, US Constitution
What These Rights Don’t Cover
Constitutional protections are broad but limited. Most apply only against the government, federal, state, or local. A private employer, a social media company, or a homeowners’ association is generally not bound by the First Amendment or the Due Process Clause. Legal scholars call this the state action doctrine.18Legal Information Institute. State Action Doctrine Federal laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do prohibit certain kinds of private discrimination, but those laws draw their authority from Congress’s power to regulate commerce, not directly from the amendments themselves.
Even when the government is involved, individual rights have recognized exceptions. First Amendment speech protection does not cover true threats, incitement to imminent lawless action, defamation, or obscenity. The Second Amendment coexists with longstanding restrictions on firearms in places like schools and government buildings. And the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement has exceptions for emergencies and other narrow circumstances. These boundaries have been drawn by Supreme Court decisions over decades and continue to shift.