Eleventh through Twenty-Seventh Amendments Annotated
Eleventh through Twenty-Seventh Amendments
Amendment XI (1798)
The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.1
Amendment XII (1804)
The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;–The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;–the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.2
Amendment XIII (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.3
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.4
Amendment XIV (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.5 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 deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.6
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.7 But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers 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 participation 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.8
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 comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.9
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 neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation 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.10
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.11
Amendment XV (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.12
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.13
Amendment XVI (1913)
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census of enumeration.14
Amendment XVII (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.15
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.16
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.17
Amendment XVIII (1919)
Section 1. 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.18
Section 2. The Congress and the several states shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.19
Section 3. 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.20
Amendment XIX (1920)
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 sex.21
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.22
Amendment XX (1933)
Section 1. The terms of the President and 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.23
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.24
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 elect 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.25
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.26
Section 5. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.27
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.28
Amendment XXI (1933)
Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.29
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.30
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.31
Amendment XXII (1951)
Section 1. 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 than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.32
Section 2. 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.33
Amendment XXIII (1961)
Section 1. The District constituting the seat of government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the 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 perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.34
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.35
Amendment XXIV (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 any poll tax or other tax.36
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.37
Amendment XXV (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.38
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.39
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.40
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, transmit 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.41
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 department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit 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.42
Amendment XXVI (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.43
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.44
Amendment XXVII (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.45
Annotations
Amendment XI (1798)
1States are immune to suits brought against them by citizens of other states or nations in federal courts.
Amendment XII (1804)
2While the text of Article II of the Constitution states that the electors will vote for a President and the runner-up will become Vice President, this amendment states that the electors in each state will vote for both a President and a Vice President.
Amendment XIII (1865)
3Slavery is forbidden in the United States except for as punishment for a crime.
4Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XIV (1868)
5All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens and have the privileges of citizenship.
6States shall not deprive persons of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. States shall not deny the equal protection of the laws to any person.
7The number of Representatives/electors will be determined by the whole number of people in each state.
8All males over the age of twenty-one have the right to vote, and if any state does not abide by this rule, their number of Representatives/electors will be reduced to the proportion of male citizens over twenty-one.
9No person who engaged in insurrection or rebellion [the Civil War] will hold federal or state office in unless approved by two-thirds of both Houses of Congress.
10The United States will not assume or pay any debt that was incurred aiding the insurrection or rebellion [the Civil War] nor will it pay for the loss or emancipation of any slave.
11Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XV (1870)
12The right to vote will not be denied or limited based on race, color, or previous enslavement.
13Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XVI (1913)
Amendment XVII (1913)
15Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution states that United States Senators will be chosen by the legislatures of each state. The Seventeenth Amendment states that Senators will be elected by the people, not the legislatures.
16When vacancies occur in the Senate, the state will hold elections to fill the spot, or the executive of the state may make a temporary appointment prior to the next election.
17This amendment does not affect the election or term of Senators chosen prior to its ratification.
Amendment XVIII (1919)
18One year after ratification of this amendment, the manufacture, sale, transportation, importation, and exportation of intoxicating liquors [alcohol] is prohibited. This is known as Prohibition.
19Congress and the states have the power to enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
20The amendment must be ratified within seven years, or it will not go into effect.
Amendment XIX (1920)
21The right to vote will not be denied or limited based on sex.
22Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XX (1933)
23The terms of the President and Vice President will end at noon on January 20 in the year following in election. The terms of Senators and Representatives will end on January 3. Originally, the new terms for these offices began on March 4.
24Congress will meet at least once a year and the meeting shall begin at noon on January 3 unless they pass a law to change the date.
25If the President dies before the beginning of his or her term, the Vice President-elect will become President. If the President has not been chosen or is not qualified by the beginning of the term, the Vice President-elect will act as president. If neither the president nor Vice President has been chosen or qualified, Congress may declare who shall act as President or the manner in which an acting president will be chosen.
26If the President chosen by Congress [per Section 3] dies, the House can choose a new president. If the Vice President chosen by Congress dies, the Senate can choose a new Vice President.
27This amendment will take effect on October 15 following ratification.
28This amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states within seven years in order to take effect.
Amendment XXI (1933)
29This amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.
30States may still have laws prohibiting the transportation, importation, or use of intoxicating liquors, and such laws are still valid.
31This amendment must be ratified within seven years to go into effect.
Amendment XXII (1951)
32Presidents cannot be elected more than twice. This does prevent those who are “acting” as President to be elected to the office twice. For example, if a President dies and a Vice President becomes the “acting” President for the rest of the term, he or she can still be elected for two terms.
33This amendment must be ratified within seven years to go into effect.
Amendment XXIII (1961)
34The District of Columbia can appoint electors to take part in presidential and vice-presidential elections based on population as though it was a state.
35Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XXIV (1964)
36The right to vote will not be denied or limited based because of a failure to pay a poll tax or other tax.
37Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XXV (1967)
38If the President dies, is removed, or resigns from office, the Vice President will become President.
39If there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who must be confirmed by both Houses of Congress before taking office.
40When the President gives a written statement that he/she is unable to perform the powers and duties of the office to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, the Vice President will become the Acting President.
41When the Vice President and a majority of the officers of the executive departments or other body Congress determines gives a written statement that the president is unable to perform the powers and duties of the office to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, the Vice President will become the Acting President.
42If the President then submits a written statement that he/she is no inability exists to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House, he will resume the powers of the office unless the Vice President and a majority of the executive officers declare his/her inability again within four days. Congress will assemble within 48 hours to decide the issue by two-thirds vote in both Houses within 21 days. If they determine the President is unable to serve, the Vice President will become Acting President. If they determine that the President is able to serve, he/she will remain in office.
Amendment XXVI (1971)
43The right to vote will not be denied or limited based to citizens of eighteen years of age or older.
44Congress can enforce this amendment through the passage of other laws.
Amendment XXVII (1992)
45Laws regarding the compensation [pay] of Senators and Representatives will not take effect until after the next election.