If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them. Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article.
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.
The 20th Amendment set the beginning and end of presidential terms and Congressional sessions. It also lays out the order of presidential succession, but that order was later altered by the 25th Amendment. In , Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to be inaugurated in January, as set out by the 20th Amendment, instead of in March, or in April, as George Washington had been.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
The 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition. It was passed by Congress on February 20, , and ratified on December 5, This is the only amendment that repeals a previous amendment and it is the only amendment that was ratified by the state ratifying conventions as opposed to the legislatures of the states. Read More: 14 things you didn't know about the history of beer. 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, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President, when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
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. The 22nd Amendment — which was passed by Congress on March 21, , and ratified on February 27, — limits presidential terms to two.
This is mostly because George Washington decided to retire after just two terms, which set the precedent for the next years of presidents in the United States.
The 22nd Amendment was passed out of fear of a tyrannical president. Prior to the passage of this amendment, Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected to four terms as president, serving from until his death in The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
The 23rd Amendment was passed by Congress June 16, , and ratified on March 29, It allowed the citizens of Washington, DC, to choose electors for presidential elections because, as citizens of a federal district and not a state, DC residents are not citizens of a state. Before this amendment was ratified, DC residents were denied the right to vote for federal public officials. Today, DC residents are still unrepresented in Congress , but they have a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
The 24th Amendment was passed by Congress on August 27, , and ratified on January 23, It abolished poll taxes, which had previously been required to vote in elections. When the US Constitution was first ratified, most states allowed only property owners to vote, but as time went on, many states moved to poll taxes.
At first, that expanded the right to vote because more citizens could pay the poll tax than prove they were property owners. However, poll taxes were brought back as a way to prevent black Americans from voting until the Voting Rights Act of In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.
The 25th Amendment — which was passed by Congress on July 6, , and ratified on February 10, — sets the order of succession for the president and lays out what to do in the case of presidential incapacity. This amendment has only been used three times since it was ratified, to relieve presidents from their duties because of physical health. It was initially passed out of fear of presidential succession after John F.
Kennedy was assassinated in The first use of the 25th Amendment was in when Gerald R. Ford became president after Richard Nixon's resignation. Bush during a surgery. George W. Bush invoked the 25th Amendment twice during his presidency to give Vice President Dick Cheney presidential powers while he had routine colonoscopies in and in The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
This is the last amendment that deals with voting rights protections. Before the 26th Amendment was ratified, Americans voted at age The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
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 sex.
The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.
If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.
Sections 1 and 2 shall take effect on the 15th day of October following the ratification of this article. 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.
The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress. 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, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
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. The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct:.
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.
Non-Enumerated Rights. Rights Reserved to States. Suits Against a State. Election of President and Vice-President. Abolition of Slavery and Involuntary Servitude. Voting Rights. Federal Income Tax. Popular Election of Senators.
Women's Right to Vote. Commencement of Presidential Term and Succession. Since the District of Columbia became the seat of the U. The 23rd Amendment addressed this, giving D. While the original version of the amendment approved by the Senate would have granted the District representation in the House of Representatives, the House rejected this idea.
In , Congress adopted another proposed amendment that provided for D. Starting in the years following Reconstruction , many white-dominated Southern legislatures enacted poll taxes as a method of disenfranchising Black voters.
Congress repeatedly debated legislation to eliminate poll taxes starting in , but none passed. Though only five states still had such taxes in place by , supporters of the civil rights movement saw their abolition as an important objective in combating racism and discrimination against Black Americans. The 24th Amendment applied only to federal elections, and after its ratification several southern states tried to maintain poll taxes for separately held state elections.
In Harper v. Vice President Lyndon B. After John F. Kennedy was assassinated in November , a movement grew to clarify the vague procedures that had existed around presidential disability and the right of succession. It also allows the president to declare a temporary inability to serve—as in the case of undergoing surgery—and resume powers when able. The fourth and most controversial section, which has never been invoked, empowers the vice president to become acting president if the president is determined by the vice president and the majority of the Cabinet, backed by Congress to be unable to perform the duties of the office.
The long-running debate over whether young Americans should be asked to risk their lives fighting for their country before they were given the right to vote intensified during the Vietnam War. In , Congress passed a statute lowering the age of voting in all federal, state and local elections to When Oregon challenged that law, the Supreme Court sided with the state, ruling that Congress only had jurisdiction over federal elections.
With a groundswell of popular support, the 26th Amendment was passed and ratified in record time, lowering the legal voting age to 18 in all U. By prohibiting any law raising or lowering the salaries of members of Congress from taking effect before the start of a new session of Congress begins, the 27th Amendment aims to reduce corruption in the legislative branch of the federal government.
Originally introduced by Madison, it was left in limbo when the first 10 amendments were ratified in and largely forgotten by the late 20th century, when Gregory Watson, a college student in Texas, read about it in a class on American government. Watson later rallied enough popular support and resentment of Congress to get the requisite three-quarters of U.
Constitutional Amendment Process. Federal Register, National Archives. Jack N. Rakove, ed. The Annotated U. Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Harvard University Press, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Heritage Foundation. Interactive Constitution. Constitution Center.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. It was signed on September 17, , by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
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