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United States Constitution
The Bill of Rights
We are pleased to list the rights of all citizens of the United States of America as stated in our constitution. Specific rights that we bring to attention are sub lined in yellow. On the following page is the entire US Constitution.
AMENDMENTS
The Ten Original Amendments: The Bill of Rights. Passed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified December 15, 1791.
AMENDMENT I
Freedom of Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
AMENDMENT II
Right to Bear Arms
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free
State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be
infringed.
AMENDMENT III
Quartering Soldiers
No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the
consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed
by law.
AMENDMENT IV
Searches and Seizures
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers,
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by
oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched,
and the persons or things to be seized.
AMENDMENT V
Rights
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual
service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for
the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor
shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
AMENDMENT VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been
previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of
the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have
compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
assistance of counsel for his defense.
AMENDMENT VII
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact
tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United
States, than according to the rules of the common law.
AMENDMENT VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be con-
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
AMENDMENT X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or
to the people.
AMENDMENT XI
AMENDMENT XIII
Abolition of Slavery
Passed by Congress January 31, 1865. Ratified December 6, 1865.
Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2.
Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
AMENDMENT XIV
Rights of Citizens
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the laws.
Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according
to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each
State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any elec-
tion for the choice of Electors for President and Vice-President of the
United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial off-
icers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to
any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,
and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for parti-
cipation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens
shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in
such State.
Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or Elector of
President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under
the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath,
as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a
member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of
any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have
engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or com-
fort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of
each House, remove such disability.
Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law,
including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But nei-
ther the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obliga-
tion incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States,
or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts,
obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article.
AMENDMENT XV
Black Voting Rights
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870.
Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or
previous condition of servitude.
Section 2.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
AMENDMENT XVI
(Proposed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.)
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from
whatever sources derived, without apportionment among the several States, and
without regard to any census or enumeration.
AMENDMENT XVII
(Proposed by Congress May 13, 1912. Ratified April 8, 1913.)
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each
State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have
one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for
electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislatures.
When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the
executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such
vacancies: Provided, That the Legislature of any State may empower the
Executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the
vacancies by election as the Legislature may direct.
This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any
Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.
AMENDMENT XVIII
(Proposed by Congress December 18, 1917. Ratified January 16, 1919. Altered by
Amendment 21)
After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or
transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the
exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the
jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of the several States, as
provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission
hereof to the States by the Congress.
AMENDMENT XIX
Woman Suffrage
(Passed by Congress June 4, 1919. Ratified August 18, 1920.)
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or a bridged by
the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
AMENDMENT XX
Section 1. The terms of the President and the Vice-President shall end
at noon
on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at
noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have
ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall
then begin.
Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and
such
meeting shall begin at noon on the 3rd day of January, unless they shall by law
appoint a different day.
Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the
President, the
President elect shall have died, the Vice-President elect shall become President.
If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning
of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the
Vice-President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified;
and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President
elect nor a Vice-President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as
President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such
person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice-President shall have
qualified.
Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of
any of
the persons from whom the House of representatives may choose a President
whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of
the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a
Vice-President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of
October
following the ratification of this article (October 1933).
Section 6. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been
ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several
States within seven years from the date of its submission.
AMENDMENT XXI
(Proposed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 1933.)
Section 1. The Eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of
the United
States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory,
or
Possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors,
in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been
ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided
in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to
the States by the Congress.
AMENDMENT XXII
(Proposed by Congress March 21, 1947. Ratified February 27, 1951.)
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and
no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more
that two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall
be elected to the office of President more that once.
But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President
when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person
who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the
term the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office
of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an
amendment to the Constitution by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several
States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the
Congress.
AMENDMENT XXIII
(Proposed by Congress June 16, 1960. Ratified March 29, 1961.)
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of Government of the
United States
shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District
would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous
State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be
considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to
be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and preform
such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate
legislation.
AMENDMENT XXIV
(Proposed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any
primary or
other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice
President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or
abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or
any other tax.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate
legislation.
AMENDMENT XXV
(Proposed by Congress July 6, 1965. Ratified February 10, 1967.)
Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of
his death or
resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice
President, the
President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take the office upon
confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President Pro tempore
of
the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written
declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and
until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and
duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the
principal
officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by
law provide, transmits to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the
President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice
President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting
President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President Pro tempore of the
Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration
that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless
the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive
departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmits
within four days to the President Pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of
the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is
unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress
shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not
in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter
written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session within twenty-one days after
Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both houses
that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the
Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President;
otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
AMENDMENT XXVI
(Proposed by Congress March 23, 1971. Ratified June 30, 1971.)
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States, who are 18 years
of age or
older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state
on account of age.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate
legislation.
AMENDMENT XXVII
(Proposed by Congress September 25, 1789. Ratified May 8, 1992)
No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and
Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have
intervened.
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