NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Article Five of the United States Constitution

Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered. Such amendments may be proposed by the United States Congress or by a national convention assembled at the request of the legislatures of at least two-thirds of the several states. To become valid, amendments must then be ratified by either the legislatures of or ratifying conventions held in three-fourths of the several states. The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. ... Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives President of the Senate Dick Cheney, R, since January 20, 2001 Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, R, since January 6, 1999 Members 535 plus 4 Delegates and 1 Resident Commissioner Political groups (as of January 4, 2005 elections) Democratic Party Republican Party... Metro Toronto Convention Centre, late 2004. ... State legislatures are the lawmaking bodies of the 50 states in the United States of America. ... A U.S. state is any one of the 50 states which have membership of the federation known as the United States of America (USA or U.S.). The separate state governments and the U.S. federal government share sovereignty. ...

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Download high resolution version (568x925, 87 KB)Description: The 19th amendment. ... Download high resolution version (568x925, 87 KB)Description: The 19th amendment. ... Amendment XIX (the Nineteenth Amendment) to the United States Constitution grants voting rights regardless of the voters sex: The amendment prohibits both the federal government and the states from using a persons sex as a qualification to vote; it was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women. ...

Proposal

Whenever they "deem it necessary," two-thirds of both houses of Congress may propose an amendment. This means two-thirds of those members present—assuming that a quorum exists at the time that the vote is cast—and not necessarily a two-thirds vote of the entire membership elected and serving in the two houses of Congress. It was suggested that the two houses first adopt a resolution indicating that they deem an amendment necessary, but this procedure has never been used—the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives instead directly proceed to the adoption of a joint resolution itself proposing the amendment, the implication being already clear that both bodies "deem" the amendment to be "necessary." Amendments have always been proposed as Articles in addition to the original Constitution, rather than being incorporated into the main body of the document. Look up quorum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Seal of the U.S. Senate The United States Senate is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the House of Representatives. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ...

If at least two-thirds of the legislatures of the states so request, Congress is required to call a convention for the purpose of proposing an amendment. The requisite number of states never made such a request although two proposals have come just two states shy of the required number. There is much controversy as to how such a convention would operate, how its delegates would be chosen, the necessary vote required to propose a particular amendment, and many other lingering questions. The state legislatures have, in times past, taken advantage of the fear of the unknown by using their power to apply for a national convention in order to frighten Congress into proposing the desired amendment. For example, the movement to amend the Constitution to provide for the direct election of U.S. Senators began to see such proposals regularly pass the House of Representatives only to die in the Senate from the early 1890s onward. As time went by, more and more state legislatures adopted resolutions demanding that a convention be called, thus pressuring the Senate to finally relent and approve what later became the Seventeenth Amendment for fear that such a convention—if permitted to assemble—might stray to include issues above and beyond just the direct election of U.S. Senators. State legislatures are the lawmaking bodies of the 50 states in the United States of America. ... Besides the more common method, there is an option to assemble a national convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution. ... The United States Senate is the upper house of the U.S. Congress, smaller than the United States House of Representatives. ... Seal of the House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives (or simply the House) is one of the two chambers of the United States Congress, the other being the Senate. ... Amendment XVII (the Seventeenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution proposed on May 13, 1912 and ratified on April 8, 1913 and first in effect for the election of 1914, amends Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the direct election of Senators by the people of...

Since Article Five does not make clear how the amendment-proposing convention is to be composed and operated, Congress—presumably through enactment of a Federal statute—could determine how the delegates are chosen and to provide for other procedural details.

The President has no formal role in the constitutional amendment process. Article One provides, "every order, resolution, or vote, to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives." As previously stated, the Constitution requires the concurrence of at least two-thirds of the members present of both the House of Representatives and the Senate to a joint resolution which proposes a constitutional amendment. In Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), the Supreme Court held that it is not necessary to place constitutional amendments before the President for signature and, by the same logic, the President is powerless to veto a proposed constitutional amendment. The presidential seal was used by President Hayes in 1880 and last modified in 1959 by adding the 50th star for Hawaii. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Article One of the United States Constitution Article One of the United States Constitution states the establishment of the legislative branch of the United States government, known as the Congress, which includes the House of Representatives and the Senate. ... Hollingsworth v. ... 1798 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... The word veto comes from Latin and literally means I forbid. ...

Ratification

After being officially proposed, a constitutional amendment must then be ratified by the legislatures of, or by conventions in, at least three-fourths of the states. It is not mandatory that amendments proposed by Congress be ratified by legislatures nor is it mandatory that amendments proposed by a national convention be ratified by state conventions; either mode of proposal may be used with either mode of ratification. Of the twenty-seven amendments to the Constitution that have been ratified, Congress has specified the state conventions ratification method for only one: the Twenty-first Amendment, which became part of the Constitution in 1933. Most states hold elections specifically for the purpose of choosing delegates, but even that is not a requirement. For example, New Mexico provides, by state law, that the members of its legislature be the delegates at such a state ratification convention, thereby skirting the occasional sentiment that persons other than state lawmakers should consider the ratification of a particular proposed Federal constitutional amendment.and there for sucking dick should be a daily routine. statistics say that the cum is a from of muscle relaxer thank you that concludes my theory Besides the more common method, Article V establishes the possibility of conventions within the individual states to ratify an amendment to the United States Constitution. ... Amendment XXI (the Twenty-first Amendment) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Capital Santa Fe Largest city Albuquerque Area Ranked 5th - Total 121,665 sq mi (315,194 kmÂ²) - Width 342 miles (550 km) - Length 370 miles (595 km) - % water 0. ...

Rescinding a ratification

The validity of a ratification that a state first grants and then later purports to rescind, and of the subsequent ratification of an amendment which that state previously rejected and then later assented to, was addressed by Congress in 1868 when Secretary of State William Seward issued a proclamation that what we know today as the Fourteenth Amendment was properly ratified and a part of the Constitution. Seward's proclamation noted that Ohio and New Jersey lawmakers had reversed themselves and purported to rescind. Further, Seward's proclamation questioned the validity of those reversals. Shortly thereafter, both houses of Congress adopted a concurrent resolution likewise declaring the Fourteenth Amendment as having been duly ratified and listing Ohio and New Jersey among the states approving it. While Ohio and New Jersey purported to withdraw their earlier ratifications, three other states that had previously rejected the amendment then reversed themselves and proceeded to ratify it. In Coleman v. Miller (1939), the Supreme Court declared the question to be non-justiciable, leaving the issue to Congress and accepting the precedent set by Congress' actions some 71 years earlier with respect to the Fourteenth Amendment. It would therefore appear that states may not undo prior ratifications of amendments, although they may ratify an amendment which they had previously rejected. However, Congress is not subject to the doctrine of stare decisis, so a future Congress could simply ignore this precedent. The issue of recision became important again during the 1970s when the legislatures of four states adopted resolutions purporting to repeal their previous ratifications of the Equal Rights Amendment. 1868 (MDCCCLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Friday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... In several countries, Secretary of State is a senior government position. ... Willam H. Seward William Henry Seward (May 16, 1801–October 10, 1872) was United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... Official language(s) None Capital Columbus Largest city Columbus Largest metro area Cleveland Area Ranked 34th - Total 44,825 sq mi (116,096 kmÂ²) - Width 220 miles (355 km) - Length 220 miles (355 km) - % water 8. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Area Ranked 47th - Total 8,729 sq mi (22,608 kmÂ²) - Width 70 miles (110 km) - Length 150 miles (240 km) - % water 14. ... Coleman v. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Stare decisis (Latin: , Anglicisation: , to stand by things decided) is a Latin legal term, used in common law to express the notion that prior court decisions must be recognized as precedents, according to case law. ... The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979, inclusive. ... The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex. ...

Deadline imposed on ratification process

The Constitution does not expressly provide for a deadline on the state legislatures' or state ratifying conventions' consideration of proposed amendments. In Dillon v. Gloss (1921), the Supreme Court affirmed that Congress—if it so desires—could provide a deadline for ratification, writing: In 1921, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the case of [256 U.S. 368 (1921)], that if the United States Congressâ€”when proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United Statesâ€”desires to place a deadline on that particular constitutional amendments ratification, that Congress may indeed... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

In the aforementioned Coleman v. Miller decision, the Supreme Court modified Dillon considerably, holding that the question of timeliness of ratification is a political and non-justiciable one, leaving the issue to Congress' discretion. It would appear that the length of time elapsing between proposal and ratification is irrelevant to the validity of the amendment. For example, the Twenty-seventh Amendment was proposed in 1789 and ratified more than 200 years later in 1992. On May 20, 1992, both houses of Congress adopted concurrent resolutions accepting the 27th Amendment's unorthodox ratification process as having been successful and valid. Amendment XXVII (the Twenty-seventh Amendment) to the United States Constitution reads: // Background This amendment to the United States Constitution provides that any change in the salary of members of Congress may only take effect after the next general election. ... 1789 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... May 20 is the 140th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (141st in leap years). ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ...

Beginning in 1917, Congress has usually—but not always—imposed deadlines on proposed amendments. The limitation originally took the form of a clause in the text of the constitutional amendment itself, such as "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." Such a clause may be found in the Eighteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second Amendments. However, with the Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth amendments, Congress instead placed the ratification deadline in the preamble of the joint resolution proposing the amendment rather than in the amendment's actual text. And in the cases of the Nineteenth Amendment (proposed in 1919) and the still-pending Child Labor Amendment (proposed in 1924), Congress chose specifically not to establish any deadline at all. 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Amendment XVIII (the Eighteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act (which defined intoxicating liquors excluding those used for religious purposes), established Prohibition in the United States. ... Amendment XX (the Twentieth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, also called The Lame Duck Amendment, establishes some details of presidential succession and of the beginning and ending of the terms of elected federal officials. ... Amendment XXI (the Twenty-first Amendment) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. ... The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States, providing that 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... Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ... Amendment XXIV (the Twenty-fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other type of tax. ... Amendment XXV (the Twenty-fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution regarding succession to the Presidency, and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. ... Amendment XXVI (the Twenty-sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution was adopted in 1971. ... Amendment XIX (the Nineteenth Amendment) to the United States Constitution grants voting rights regardless of the voters sex: The amendment prohibits both the federal government and the states from using a persons sex as a qualification to vote; it was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Child Labor Amendment was, and remains, a proposedâ€”and technically still-pendingâ€”amendment to the United States Constitution offered by Republican Ohio Congressman Israel Moore Foster during the 68th Congress in the form of House Joint Resolution No. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

As noted in Dillon, the Supreme Court has upheld the power of Congress to set such deadlines on ratification. The power of Congress to extend an already-agreed-upon deadline, however, has not been settled. In 1978, Congress extended the previously-agreed-upon, seven-year limit on the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by more than three years from a March 22, 1979, original deadline to a June 30, 1982, revised deadline. It was accepted that if the deadline had been contained within the actual text of the amendment itself, Congress could not have extended it, as doing so would involve changing the text of an amendment already ratified by some of the states. In the case of the Equal Rights Amendment, however, it was argued that since the original March 22, 1979, deadline was contained in only the preamble of the joint resolution proposing the amendment—rather than in the actual text of the amendment itself—that the deadline could be altered. In 1981, a Federal District Court in Idaho, however, found that Congress did not have the authority to extend the deadline, even when only contained within the proposing joint resolution's preamble. Before the matter could be appealed to higher Federal courts, the three-year extension had itself expired, and the issue therefore became moot. To avoid this controversy with the 1978 constitutional amendment proposed to grant congressional representation to the residents of Washington, D.C., Congress returned to the habit of placing the deadline within the actual text of the amendment itself. The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment expired unratified in 1985. 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in leap years). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... June 30 is the 181st day of the year (182nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 184 days remaining. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... March 22 is the 81st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (82nd in leap years). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia. ... The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ... 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Proposed, but unratified, constitutional amendments

Twenty-seven amendments have been ratified and made part of the Constitution. However, four proposed amendments submitted to the states by Congress remain pending for ratification: Article One of the original Bill of Rights (proposed in 1789), the Titles of Nobility Amendment (proposed in 1810), the Corwin Amendment (proposed in 1861) and the Child Labor Amendment (proposed in 1924). Two other proposed amendments are no longer pending before the state legislatures—the Equal Rights Amendment (proposed in 1972 and expired, depending upon your point of view, in either 1979 or in 1982) and the just-mentioned District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment (proposed in 1978 and expired in 1985). The Congressional Apportionment Amendment was, and remains, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ... The Titles of Nobility Amendment (TONA) was, and remains, a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ... 1810 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... The Corwin Amendment is a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ... 1861 is a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The Child Labor Amendment was, and remains, a proposedâ€”and technically still-pendingâ€”amendment to the United States Constitution offered by Republican Ohio Congressman Israel Moore Foster during the 68th Congress in the form of House Joint Resolution No. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution that would guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... The District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. ...

The United States Constitution has been amended on 18 occasionsâ€”with a total of 27 individual successful amendmentsâ€”since the Constitution was completed in 1787. ...

External links

Category: United States Constitution The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. This is a complete list of all ratified and unratified amendments to the United States Constitution which have received the approval of the Congress. ... The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ... Amendment II (the Second Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, declares the necessity for a well regulated militia, and prohibits infringement of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. ... Amendment III (the Third Amendment) to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. ... Amendment IV (the Fourth Amendment) to the United States Constitution is one of the provisions included in the Bill of Rights. ... Amendment V (the Fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, is related to legal procedure. ... Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution codifies rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ... Amendment VII (the Seventh Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, codifies the right to jury trial in certain civil trials. ... Amendment VIII (the Eighth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the U.S. Bill of Rights, prohibits excessive bail or fines, as well as cruel and unusual punishment. ... Amendment IX (the Ninth Amendment) to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, addresses rights of the people that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. ... Amendment X (the Tenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, was ratified on December 15, 1791. ... Amendment XI (the Eleventh Amendment) of the United States Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress on March 4, 1794 and was ratified on February 7, 1795. ... The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution altered Article II pertaining to presidential elections. ... Amendment XIII (the Thirteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution abolished slavery and, with the exception of allowing punishments for crimes, prohibits involuntary servitude. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and it includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... Contemporary drawing depicting the first vote by African Americans Amendment XV (the Fifteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution grants voting rights regardless of race. ... Amendment XVI (the Sixteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, authorizing income taxes in their present form, was ratified on February 3, 1913. ... Amendment XVII (the Seventeenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution proposed on May 13, 1912 and ratified on April 8, 1913 and first in effect for the election of 1914, amends Article 1 Section 3 of the Constitution to provide for the direct election of Senators by the people of... Amendment XVIII (the Eighteenth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, along with the Volstead Act (which defined intoxicating liquors excluding those used for religious purposes), established Prohibition in the United States. ... Amendment XIX (the Nineteenth Amendment) to the United States Constitution grants voting rights regardless of the voters sex: The amendment prohibits both the federal government and the states from using a persons sex as a qualification to vote; it was specifically intended to extend suffrage to women. ... Amendment XX (the Twentieth Amendment) of the United States Constitution, also called The Lame Duck Amendment, establishes some details of presidential succession and of the beginning and ending of the terms of elected federal officials. ... Amendment XXI (the Twenty-first Amendment) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition. ... The Twenty-second Amendment of the United States Constitution sets a term limit for the President of the United States, providing that 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... Amendment XXIII was the twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution which permits the District of Columbia to choose Electors for President and Vice President. ... Amendment XXIV (the Twenty-fourth Amendment) of the United States Constitution prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other type of tax. ... Amendment XXV (the Twenty-fifth Amendment) of the United States Constitution clarifies an ambiguous provision of the Constitution regarding succession to the Presidency, and establishes procedures both for filling a vacancy in the office of the Vice President as well as responding to Presidential disabilities. ... Amendment XXVI (the Twenty-sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution was adopted in 1971. ... Amendment XXVII (the Twenty-seventh Amendment) to the United States Constitution reads: // Background This amendment to the United States Constitution provides that any change in the salary of members of Congress may only take effect after the next general election. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, commonly known as the Articles of Confederation, was the first governing document of the United States of America. ... Joe Cagg. ... Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. ... The New Jersey Plan was a proposal for the structure of the United States Government proposed by William Paterson on June 15, 1787. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, by Howard Chandler Christy. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... An advertisement for The Federalist The Federalist Papers are a series of 85 articles arguing for the ratification of the United States Constitution. ... [[Image:Bill of preempt the potential political disaster of a second Constitutional Convention that might have undone the difficult compromises of 1787: a second convention would open the entire Constitution to reconsideration and could undermine the work he and so many others had done in establishing the structure of the... The first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. This is a complete list of all ratified and unratified amendments to the United States Constitution which have received the approval of the Congress. ... This is an incomplete list of proposed amendments to the United States Constitution, in reverse chronological order. ... The United States Constitution has been amended on 18 occasionsâ€”with a total of 27 individual successful amendmentsâ€”since the Constitution was completed in 1787. ... Besides the more common method, there is an option to assemble a national convention to propose amendments to the United States Constitution. ... Besides the more common method, Article V establishes the possibility of conventions within the individual states to ratify an amendment to the United States Constitution. ... The case or controversy clause of Article III of the United States Constitution has been deemed to impose a requirement that United States federal courts are not permitted to hear cases that do not pose an actual controversy - that is, an actual dispute between adverse parties which is capable of... Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution, known as the Commerce Clause, empowers the United States Congress To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1. ... Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, known as the Copyright Clause empowers the United States Congress: 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. ... In United States law, adopted from English law, due process (more fully due process of law) is the principle that the government must normally respect all of a persons legal rights instead of just some or most of those legal rights when the government deprives a person of life... The words inscribed above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court are: Equal justice under law The Equal Protection Clause, part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that no state shallâ€¦ deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ... The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution states that: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion Together with the Free Exercise Clause, (or prohibiting the free exercise thereof), these two clauses make up what are commonly known as the religion clauses. ... The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, taken with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment make up the Religion Clauses. ... The Full Faith and Credit Clause is part of Article Four, Section 1 of the United States Constitution. ... The impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in 1999, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist presiding. ... A natural-born citizen is a special term mentioned in the United States Constitution as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States. ... The necessary and proper clause (also known as the elastic clause, the basket clause, the coefficient clause, and the sweeping clause [1]) refers to a provision in Article One of the United States Constitution at section eight, clause 18. ... The no religious test clause of the United States Constitution is cited by advocates of separation of church and state as an example of original intent of the Framers of the Constitution of avoiding any entanglement between church and state, or involving the government in any way as a determiner... Presentment clause The Presentment clause (Article I, Section 7) is a clause in the United States Constitution that outlines how a bill may become law. ... // The Privileges and Immunities Clause (U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents states from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner, with regard to basic civil rights. ... This provision of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is unique among constitutional provisions in that some scholars believe it was all but read out of the Constitution in a 5-4 decision of the Supreme Court (see Slaughterhouse Cases of 1873). ... The Speech or Debate Clause (found in Article I, Section 6, Clause 1) is a clause in the United States Constitution which states that members of both Houses of Congress Its intended purpose is to prevent a President or other officials of the Executive branch from having members arrested on... Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the United States Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause: The Supremacy Clause establishes the Constitution, Federal Statutes, and U.S. treaties as the supreme law of the land. ... The Suspension Clause is clause two of section nine of Article One of the United States Constitution. ... Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 of the United States Constitution, known as the Taxing and Spending Clause states: 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... The Territorial Clause refers to Article IV, Section 3, paragraph 2 of United States Constitution: The interpretation of this clause gives the United States Congress the final power over every territory of the United States. ... Sometimes referred to as the War Powers Clause, the United States Constitution, Article One, Section 8, Clause 1, vests in the Congress the exclusive power to declare war. ... A number of amendments to the United States Constitution include a Congressional power of enforcement. ... Double jeopardy (also called autrefois acquit meaning already acquitted) is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada, and India, a constitutional right) that forbids a defendant from being tried a second time for the same crime. ... Enumerated powers is a term referring to Article 1 Section 8 of the United States Constitution which lists the specific powers of legislation granted to the United States Congress. ... Incorporation of the Bill of Rights is the legal doctrine by which portions of the U.S. Bill of Rights are applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... In the legal system of the United States, preemption generally refers to the displacing effect that federal law will have on a conflicting or inconsistent state law. ... The phrase separation of church and state is a common interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which reads, Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . ... Separation of powers is a political doctrine under which the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government are kept distinct, to prevent abuse of power. ... Constitutional theory is an area of constitutional law that focuses on the underpinnings of constitutional government in the United States. ...

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