Eleanor Finch
The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times since it was ratified in 1788. The first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were passed in 1789 and ratified on December 15, 1791. These amendments encompass many of the rights Americans hold dear today, such as the right to free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to keep and bear arms. Other amendments include the Seventeenth Amendment, which changed the way U.S. Senators are elected, and the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age to 18. The most recent amendment, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, was proposed in 1789 but not ratified until 1992, and it addresses congressional compensation.
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What You'll Learn
The First Amendment
The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times, with the first ten amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, being ratified on December 15, 1791. The First Amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, prevents Congress from making laws that infringe on religious freedom and expression, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government.
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The Second Amendment
> "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."
The US Supreme Court has ruled on the Second Amendment several times, with significant cases including:
- United States v. Cruikshank (1876): The Court ruled that the right to bear arms is not granted by the Constitution but restricts the powers of the National Government.
- United States v. Miller (1939): The Court adopted a collective rights approach, determining that Congress could regulate certain firearms under the National Firearms Act of 1934 if they had no reasonable relationship to a well-regulated militia.
- District of Columbia v. Heller (2008): The Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual's right to keep a gun for self-defence, the first ruling of its kind.
- McDonald v. Chicago (2010): The Court clarified that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the Second Amendment against state and local governments, strengthening Second Amendment protections.
- Caetano v. Massachusetts (2016): The Court struck down a Massachusetts statute prohibiting the possession or use of "stun guns," finding that they are protected under the Second Amendment.
- New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022): The Court created a new test for laws seeking to limit Second Amendment rights, based on the history and tradition of gun rights.
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The Seventeenth Amendment
Before the Seventeenth Amendment, the Constitution required state legislatures to fill Senate vacancies. The amendment allows voters to cast direct votes for senators, with each state electing two senators for six-year terms. It also provides that when vacancies occur in a state's Senate representation, the state's executive authority shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. However, it allows state legislatures to empower their executives to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies through elections.
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The Twenty-Sixth Amendment
Before the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, states had the authority to set their own minimum voting ages. In 1943 and 1955, the Georgia and Kentucky legislatures approved measures to lower the voting age to 18, and in 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president to publicly support prohibiting age-based denials of suffrage for those 18 and older. Despite this, Congress failed to pass any national change. The drive to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 grew across the country during the 1960s, driven in part by the military draft for the Vietnam War, which conscripted young men between the ages of 18 and 21. This led to the slogan "old enough to fight, old enough to vote".
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The Twenty-Seventh Amendment
The idea behind this amendment is to reduce corruption in the legislative branch by allowing the public to remove members of Congress from office before their salaries increase. It was first proposed in 1789, along with 11 other amendments, but it was not ratified by enough states to come into force at that time. The proposed amendment was largely forgotten until 1982, when a student at the University of Texas at Austin wrote a paper claiming that the amendment had been ratified by enough states to become law.
In 1992, the Archivist of the United States, Don W. Wilson, certified that the amendment had been ratified by 38 states, and Congress declared the ratification legal and the amendment officially part of the Constitution. This process was controversial, as some scholars argued that the changing size of the Senate, House of Representatives, and number of states between 1789 and 1992 affected the validity of the ratification. Despite this, the Twenty-Seventh Amendment stands as a unique example of the amendment process, demonstrating the power of individual states to influence constitutional change even after a significant lapse of time.
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Frequently asked questions
There have been 27 amendments to the US Constitution.
The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights and were ratified in 1791. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, states that all persons born in the US are citizens and are entitled to equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibits denying citizens the right to vote based on race, colour, or previous conditions of servitude. The 26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age to 18.
The 27th Amendment, proposed in 1789 but not ratified until 1992, requires that any changes in pay for members of Congress must wait until after an election.
Amendments are made to the US Constitution to modify and update it, often to include new rights or protections for citizens.
