Amendments To The Constitution: A Historical Timeline

The United States Constitution has been amended several times since it was first put into operation on March 4, 1789. The process of amending the Constitution is outlined in Article Five, which requires amendments to be properly proposed and ratified before becoming operative. The first 10 amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were proposed by the First Congress on September 25, 1789, and ratified on December 15, 1791. Since then, there have been 27 amendments in total, with approximately 11,848 proposals introduced in Congress as of January 3, 2019.

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The Bill of Rights

The US Constitution was written in the summer of 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by delegates from 12 states. It replaced the Articles of Confederation with a new form of government, creating a federal system with a national government composed of three separated powers.

The first ten amendments were adopted and ratified simultaneously. The House approved 17 amendments, of which the Senate approved 12, which were sent to the states for approval in August 1789. Ten of these were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791, and form what is known as the Bill of Rights.

The amendments include:

• The right to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.
• No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime without a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury.
• No person shall be subject to the same offence twice (double jeopardy).
• The right against self-incrimination.
• No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
• Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.
• The right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.
• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
• The right to freedom of speech and of the press.
• The right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The first 10 amendments

The US Constitution has been amended 27 times since it was put into operation on March 4, 1789. The first 10 amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified on December 15, 1791.

The First Congress of the United States proposed 12 amendments on September 25, 1789. Ten of these 12 proposed amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791. These ratified amendments (Articles 3–12) constitute the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, or the US Bill of Rights.

The Bill of Rights includes the following:

• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
• Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.
• The right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
• The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
• The government cannot force homeowners to allow soldiers to use their homes.
• The government is barred from unreasonable search and seizure of an individual or their private property.
• People have the right against self-incrimination and cannot be imprisoned without due process of law.
• People accused of crimes have the right to a speedy and public trial and to be informed of criminal charges.
• The listing of specific rights in the Constitution does not mean that people do not have other rights that have not been spelled out.
• The Federal Government only has those powers delegated to it in the Constitution.

Amendments proposed in 1789

The process of amending the US Constitution began as early as March 4, 1789, when the new frame of government came into force. On April 30, 1789, George Washington, during his inauguration speech as the first US president, addressed the subject of amending the Constitution. He urged legislators to carefully avoid any alteration that might endanger the benefits of a united and effective government.

On June 8, 1789, James Madison, the representative who studied the deficiencies of the Constitution, introduced a series of Constitutional amendments in the House of Representatives for consideration. Madison's proposal included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to the states. He also suggested adding introductory language stressing natural rights to the preamble. Madison's proposal was opposed by some, who believed that amending the Constitution so soon after its implementation would create an appearance of instability in the government.

On July 21, 1789, the House took up Madison's proposal as a full body. The eleven-member committee made significant changes to Madison's nine proposed amendments, including eliminating most of his preamble and adding the phrase "freedom of speech, and of the press". The House debated the amendments for eleven days. The amendments were then revised and condensed from twenty to seventeen, and were approved and forwarded to the Senate on August 24, 1789. The Senate made further edits, including eliminating Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill of Rights to the states. The seventeen amendments were condensed to twelve, which were approved on September 9, 1789.

On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution. Ten of these proposed amendments were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures on December 15, 1791, and became the first ten amendments of the Constitution, or the US Bill of Rights.

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The process of amending

The United States Constitution, which came into operation on March 4, 1789, has had 27 amendments, with over 11,000 proposals introduced in Congress since that time. The process of amending the Constitution is outlined in Article Five and involves two steps: proposing an amendment and ratifying it.

An amendment can be proposed in two ways. Firstly, it can be proposed by Congress, with a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Secondly, it can be proposed through a national convention called by Congress on the application of two-thirds of state legislatures (34 since 1959). This second option has never been used.

Once an amendment is proposed, it is sent to the states for ratification. For an amendment to become part of the Constitution, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 since 1959). This can be done through the state legislatures or state ratifying conventions. The latter method has only been used once, for the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment from 1919, which prohibited alcohol.

When an amendment is sent to the states for ratification, the Archivist of the United States is responsible for administering the process. Once an amendment is ratified, the archivist issues a certificate confirming that it is now part of the Constitution. Congress has also stipulated that amendments must be ratified within seven years of being submitted to the states.

Ratification by states

The process of amending the US Constitution is detailed in Article Five of the document. This process involves two steps: proposing an amendment and ratifying it. An amendment can be proposed by the US Congress, requiring a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, or by a national convention called by Congress upon application by two-thirds of state legislatures.

Once an amendment is proposed, it must be ratified by three-fourths of the states (38 states since 1959) to become part of the Constitution. This can be done through the state legislatures or, as was the case with the Twenty-first Amendment in 1933, by state ratifying conventions. The Archivist of the United States is responsible for administering the ratification process and issuing a certificate when an amendment becomes operative.

The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were proposed by the First Congress on September 25, 1789, and ratified on December 15, 1791. These amendments include the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to keep and bear arms.

Since then, several other amendments have been ratified by the states, including:

• The Eleventh Amendment, passed by Congress on March 4, 1794, and ratified on February 7, 1795, which clarified that the judicial power of the US does not extend to suits against one of the United States by citizens of another state or foreign country.
• The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, known as the Reconstruction Amendments.
• The Sixteenth Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified on February 3, 1913, which granted Congress the power to lay and collect income taxes without apportionment among the states.
• The Eighteenth Amendment, ratified in 1919, which established the prohibition of alcohol, and the Twenty-first Amendment, ratified in 1933, which repealed it.

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