Amendments
Try to remember all 27 amendments by era: the Bill of Rights, the early amendments, the Civil War Amendments, the Progressive Era Amendments, and the later amendments.
Bill of Rights:
-The First Amendment: Freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, petitions the government.
-The Second Amendment: Right to bear arms.
-The Third Amendment: Forbids quartering of soldiers.
-The Fourth Amendment: unreasonable search and seizure. Remember Mapp v. Ohio and exclusionary rule
-The Fifth Amendment: Trial by jury
-The Sixth Amendment: Speedy trial
- The Seventh Amendment: Trial by jury in common-law cases.
-The Eighth Amendment: Prohibits excessive bail.
-The Ninth Amendment: Limited federal government. Rights not specifically mentioned in the Constitution are still protected.
-The Tenth Amendment: When powers are not defined or delegated by the Constitution, the states have reserved power to make their own individual judgments.
Early Amendments (1795-1804):
-The Eleventh Amendment: States may not be sued in federal courts by citizens of another state or country. Overruled Chisholm v. Georgia.
-The Twelfth Amendment: Amendment ensured that electors would now have to cast separate votes for the president and vice president. Created following the debacle of the election of 1800.
Civil War Amendments (1865-1870):
The Thirteenth Amendment: Prohibits slavery, direct result of Civil War.
The Fourteenth Amendment: Remember the Bill of Rights did not originally apply to state law. After the Civil War, Northerners pushed for a constitutional amendment that would prevent the South from denying equal rights to newly freed slaves. The 14th amendment stated:
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 the due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The 14th amendment expanded the right to due process to all Americans; however, it did not immediately apply the protections of the Bill of Rights to all state laws. Instead, the Supreme Court has used the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses to extend most of the Bill of Rights protections but has done so on a case-by-case basis. This process of incorporating some of the Bill of Rights protections to state law is called selective incorporation.
The Fifteenth Amendment: Granted voting rights to males of all races, was originally designed to extend voting rights to newly freed male slaves. Ultimately, the Supreme Court and Southern states narrowed and in some cases eliminated the provisions of this amendment.
Progressive Era Amendments (1913-1920):
The Sixteenth Amendment: Before the passage of this amendment, most revenue was gathered through tariffs that placed a large burden on the poor. The 16th amendment gave Congress the power to collect taxes on income, which allowed for the creation of a progressive income tax that fell more on the rich.
The Seventeenth Amendment: This amendment provided for the direct election of United States senators. Previously, senators had been selected by the state legislature. The 17th amendment shifted the responsibility to the general voting public.
The Eighteenth Amendment: Known as the Prohibition amendment, this amendment prohibited the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in and out of the U.S.
The Nineteenth Amendment: Granted voting rights to all American women.
Later Amendments (1933-1992):
The Twentieth Amendment: Clearly defined the procedures regarding the specifics of presidential and legislative terms, and shortened the amount of time between presidential election and inauguration.
The Twenty-first Amendment: Repealed prohibition, allowed the sale of alcohol.
The Twenty-second Amendment: limits president to two terms in office.
The Twenty-third Amendment: Allowed the residents of Washington D.C. to vote in presidential elections.
The Twenty-fourth Amendment: Eliminated the racially discriminatory practice of forcing African Americans to pay poll taxes when attempting to vote in southern state elections.
The Twenty-fifth Amendment: Provided clarity regarding the selection of a new vice president should the position become vacant. Also formally permitted the vice president to assume the presidency temporarily in the event of a presidential disability.
The Twenty-sixth Amendment: Lowered voting age from 21 to 18.
The Twenty-seventh Amendment: If Congress votes itself a pay increase, that increase can not take effect until after the next election.