THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

    We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States....
       Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
 To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 
 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes; 
 To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 
 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures; 
 To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States; 
 To establish post offices and post roads; 
 To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; 
 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 
 To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 
 To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water; 
 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 
 To provide and maintain a navy; 
 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces; 
 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 
 To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress; 
 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District...become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased...for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And 
 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States....
 Section 9. The migration... shall not be prohibited prior to ...1808.
  The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended,
 unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion....
  No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
  No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid,
  unless in proportion to the census.... (changed by Amendment 16 in 1913)
  No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.
  No preference shall be given...one state over those of another:....
  nor shall vessels bound to, or from, one state, be obliged to enter, clear or pay duties in another.
  No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement....
  No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States:
  and no person holding any office... shall...accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state.
 Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation;
...emit bills of credit;....(restrictions on states)

Article II  Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President....
... be elected, as follows:....
 Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army....
 and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
  He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;
  and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers....
  Section 4. The President... and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

Article III Section 1. The judicial power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts....
  The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behaviour,....(for life, and will be paid)
  Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made...cases affecting ambassadors-to all cases of... maritime jurisdiction;
--to controversies to which the United States shall be a party;
--to controversies between two or more states;
--between a state and citizens of another state;
-- between citizens of different states;
--between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states,
  and between a state, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens or subjects..... The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state....
  Section 3. Treason .... consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.
 No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
Article IV Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state....
Section 2. The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states....
 Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress....
 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules... respecting the territory or...property belonging to the United States;
 Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them ....

Article V The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments...valid... when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states....

Article VI  All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid....

Article VII The ratification.... of this Constitution....
  Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the states  present the seventeenth day of September in the year of our  Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the  independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G. Washington-Presidt. and deputy from Virginia  New Hampshire: John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman  Massachusetts: Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King  Connecticut: Wm: Saml. Johnson, Roger Sherman  New York: Alexander Hamilton  New Jersey: Wil: Livingston, David Brearly, Wm. Paterson,  Jona: Dayton  Pennsylvania: B. Franklin, Thomas Mifflin, Robt. Morris,  Geo. Clymer, Thos. FitzSimons, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson,  Gouv Morris  Delaware: Geo: Read, Gunning Bedford jun, John Dickinson,  Richard Bassett, Jaco: Broom  Maryland: James McHenry, Dan of St Thos. Jenifer, Danl Carroll  Virginia: John Blair--, James Madison Jr.  North Carolina: Wm. Blount, Richd. Dobbs Spaight, Hu Williamson  South Carolina: J. Rutledge, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney,  Charles Pinckney, Pierce Butler  Georgia: William Few, Abr Baldwin    


  AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION IF THE UNITED STATES  
AMENDMENT I   (1791) 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  (1791) 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  (1791) No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner....
AMENDMENT IV  (1791) 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   (1791) 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...(military) forces,... 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  (1791) 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  (1791) In suits at common law,...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 (1791) Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 
AMENDMENT IX  (1791) The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 
AMENDMENT X   (1791) 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  (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. 
AMENDMENT XII  (1804) The electors...vote by ballot for President and Vice-President....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....
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. 
	Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article....
AMENDMENT XIV (1868) Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States... 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 deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
	Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states .... But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors ... 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... the basis of representation therein shall be reduced....
Section 3. No person... hold any office... who, having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same,....
 Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States....
 But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion....
 or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave;...
 Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce...this article. 

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.
 Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article...

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. 

AMENDMENT XVII  (1913) The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state,....

AMENDMENT XVIII  (1919) Section 1. After one year from the ratification ...the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors... prohibited. (Ratified 1928 repealed by Amendment 21 in 1933)

AMENDMENT XIX  (1920) The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged... on account of sex.

AMENDMENT XX   (1933) Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January....

AMENDMENT XXI  (1933) Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

AMENDMENT XXII  (1951) Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice....

AMENDMENT XXIII (1961) Section 1. The District constituting the seat of government of the United States....(gets to vote)

AMENDMENT XXIV  (1964) Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election....

AMENDMENT XXV  (1967) Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation...

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.