SEC. 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States. Fugitives from justice in any State found in another State, shall, on demand of the Executive, be delivered up and removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. SEC. 3. New States may be admitted to the Union, but no new State shall be formed within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor by the junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned, as well as of Congress. Congress shall have power to dispose of and to regulate and govern the territory or other property belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prejudice any claims of the United States, or any particular State. Every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government, and shall be protected against invasion; and on an application of the Legislature, or of the executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence. ARTICLE V. Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on application of two-thirds of the Legislatures of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. ARTICLE VI. All existing debts and engagements shall be valid against the United States under this Constitution. This Constitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby; anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. Senators and Representatives, members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. ARTICLE VII. The ratification of the Convention of nine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. DONE in convention by the unanimous consent of the States present, the seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. IN WITNESS WHEREOF we have hereunto subscribed our names. GEORGE WASHINGTON, President and Deputy from Virginia. [Other signatures omitted.] AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Proposed by Congress and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the Fifth Article of the original Constitution. ARTICLE I. Congress shall make no law respecting religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. ARTICLE II. 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. ARTICLE III. No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. ARTICLE IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons and property against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized. ARTICLE V. No person shall be held to answer for any infamous crime unless on an indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb for the same offense; nor shall he be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. ARTICLE VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. ARTICLE VII. In suits at common law, when the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the United States than according to the rules of the common law. ARTICLE VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. ARTICLE IX. The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. ARTICLE X. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. ARTICLE XI. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. ARTICLE XII. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; distinct ballots shall be made for President and Vice President, and distinct lists made of such ballots and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify and transmit sealed to the seat of government, addressed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted; the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; if no person have such majority, then from those having the highest numbers, not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But, in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by States, each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. If, whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, the House of Representatives shall not choose a President before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of death or disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. ARTICLE XIII. SECTION 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. SEC. 3. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. ARTICLE XIV. SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, or subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. 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 due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the States according to population, counting the whole number of persons in each State, including Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote is denied to any of the male inhabitants of a State, being twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twentyone years of age in such State. SEC. 3. No person shall hold any office under the United States or under any State, who having previously, as an officer of the United States of any State, taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of twothirds of each House, remove such disability. SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, including pensions and bounties, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. SEC. 5. Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. ARTICLE XV. SECTION 1. The right of citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States, or by any State, on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. SEC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. |