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Constitutional Amendments
The Bill of RightsAmendment
Date
Provisions Origins Legacy
1st 1791 No establishment of religion
Free exercise of religion
Freedom of speech
Freedom of the press
Right to peaceful assembly
Right to petition
Freedom of ReligionIn the 1600s and 1700s, religious groups such as the Pilgrims, Quakers and Catholics came to the English colonies to escape religious persecution. Pilgrims and Puritans in New England feared discrimination by the established Anglican Church, though they created a relatively
Establishment of ReligionStates gradually disestablished tax-supported churches beginning in the late 1700s.
Public schools today must avoid unnecessary “entanglement” with religion, and may not conduct official prayers (Engel v. Vitale, 1962) or daily Bible verse readings (Abington v. Schempp, 1963).
Free Exercise of ReligionThe U.S. is a land of religious diversity, although faiths have sometimes faced limitations placed on their religious practices. Mormons migrated west in the mid-1800s to escape religious
Acronym:
R-ReligionA-AssemblyP-PressP-PetitionS-Speech
intolerant colonial society of their own. Quakers migrated to Pennsylvania because of their views on pacifism and the role of women in society. And Catholics, a minority in most western European countries, carved out a haven in Maryland, where the Toleration Act of 1649 protected the freedoms of all Christian denominations.
Freedom of Speech & PressThe John Peter Zenger trial of 1735 established a tradition of free presses and the right to criticize government officials. Zenger was charged with seditious libel for publishing an article attacking New York’s colonial governor. The jury in Zenger’s case returned a
persecution, and Utah’s statehood was delayed over concerns about the Mormon practice of polygamy.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many European Catholics and Jews migrated to the U.S. seeking economic opportunity, though immigration quotas based on national origins restricted their numbers.
Many Muslims have complained of religious and ethnic profiling following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Freedom of SpeechTo stifle dissent, the government has sometimes restricted freedom of speech, especially during wartime.
John Adams signed the Sedition Act in 1798, which targeted his Jeffersonian opponents.
Abraham Lincoln jailed thousands ofConfederate sympathizerswithout trial to prevent further dissension during the Civil War.
During World War I, Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage & Sedition Acts which prohibited criticism of the government and interference with the military draft. The laws were upheld in the case Schenck v. U.S. (1919), which
verdict of not guilty because they found that Zenger’s criticisms of the governor had been true.
ruled that speech that poses a “clear and present danger” is not protected under the 1st Amendment.
Non-disruptive student protests are protected under freedom of speech. In the case of Tinker v. Des Moines(1969), the Supreme Court ruled that wearing a black armband to school in protest of the Vietnam War is protected behavior under the 1st Amendment.
In the 1989 case of Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag was also protected as an act of symbolic speech.
The Supreme Court has long held that “money is speech, ” meaning that donations to candidates and political causes are protected under the 1st Amendment. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the court overturned a law that placed restrictions on campaign donations by corporations, labor unions and political action committees.
Freedom of the PressThe press played a key role in the intensifyingsectional debatesof the mid-1800s.Abolitionist publications like William Lloyd Garrison’s The Liberator and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin angered southern defenders of slavery, while the murder
Assembly and PetitionThe right to assemble and petition (for example, the Boston Tea Party) was seen as
of abolitionist editor Elijah P. Lovejoy by a pro-slavery mob enraged many in the north.
During the Progressive Era, muckrakers exposed political corruption and unfair business practices. Books like Upton Sinclair’sThe Jungle and Jacob Riis’How the Other Half Lives drew attention to the problems created by industrialization and led to legal reforms.
As the Vietnam War raged in the 1960s and 1970s, television and newspaper coverage played a key role in turning public opinion against the war. The publication of the top-secret Pentagon Papers was a milestone in press freedom, with the Supreme Court establishing the principle that government may not censor newspapers through “prior restraint”in New York Times v. U.S., 1973.
Freedom of the press, however, canbe limited in public schools. School administrators may censor student publications that discuss controversial subjects (Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 1988).
In the current War on Terror, the Bush and Obama administrations have aggressively pursued so-called “whistleblowers” such as Bradley Manningand WikiLeakswho have released sensitive material to the media.
essential to democratic participation.
The British government had deprived colonists of many of the rights commonly granted to British subjects, so explicit constitutional protection of these rights was important to many Antifederalists.
Freedom of AssemblyDuring the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s, the Communist Party was classified as a criminal conspiracy seeking to overthrow the United States. In the 1951 case Dennis v. U.S., the Supreme Court ruled that even without speaking specific threats against the government, citizens could be jailed as subversives simply through their membership in the Communist Party.
Freedom of PetitionThe right to petition was strengthened during the Progressive Era when many states authorized initiatives. Initiatives allow citizens to propose laws by collecting a large number of voter signatures on a petition.
2nd
1791 Right to keep and bear arms (weapons)
The right to bear arms dates back to the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
Many colonists relied on firearms as hunters.
State and local militias played an important role in the French & Indian War.
The “Minutemen”
After the American Revolution, George Washington consolidated control over state militias in 1794 to quickly suppress the Whisky Rebellion.
During the War of 1812, however, American militias performed poorly on the battlefield. Federalists called for the formation of a professional standing army. Since the mid-1800s, the U.S. has generally depended on a professional military (army, navy, marines, etc.) rather than militias for national defense.
Laws in the 1800s often forbade African
helped defend the colonies in the famous battles of Lexington and Concord that sparked the Revolutionary War in 1775.
Americans and Native Americansfrom owning guns, for fear of uprisings.
In District of Columbia v. Heller(2008), the Supreme Court ruled that citizens have an individual right to gun ownership independent of membership in a militia or the armed forces.
Today, the United States has the highest rate of personal gun ownership in the world, as well as one of the highest rates of per capita firearms deaths.
The National Rifle Association has sought to protect gun ownership, while gun control advocates have tried to restrict the sale of certain types of weapons.
3rd 1791 No quartering of soldiers
After the Boston Tea Party, Parliament sought to increase its authority over the rebellious colony of Massachusetts by passing a series of Coercive (or “Intolerable”) Acts, including the Quartering Act of 1774
The Quartering Act authorized the seizure of barns, stables and other unoccupied
Since the end of the Civil War, the U.S. has experienced very little combat on its home soil, and the amendment’s relevance has slowly faded.
buildings to be used as housingfor British troops.
4th 1791 No unreasonable searches and seizures
Search warrants must be based on probable cause
Colonial smugglers ignored British trade mercantile policies. As a result, Parliament authorized writs of assistance in order to enforce the Navigation Acts. The writs of assistance allowed customs agents broad powers to search colonial merchants without a warrant.
The Supreme Court has ruled that any evidence seized in an illegal search may not be used as evidence in court. This“exclusionary rule” has a long legal history but was not fully implemented until the case of Mapp v. Ohioin 1961.
In New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that students’ 4th Amendment rights are very limited on school grounds. School administrators do not need a warrant or probable cause to search a student’s belongings or locker, only a “reasonable suspicion.”
The Nixon administration engaged in illegalsearches and wiretapping of its political enemies, culminating in the arrest of the Watergate burglars in 1972. The investigation into the burglary dragged on for two years, ending with Nixon’s resignation in 1974.
After the 9/11 attacks, the 2001 PATRIOT Actand other laws have broadened the federal government’s authority to monitor communications, financial, library and medical records of both foreigners and American citizens.Recently disclosed massive data storage programs have also raised 4th Amendment concerns.
5th 1791 Rights of the accused
Grand jury
No double jeopardy
No self-incrimination
Due process
Just compensation & eminent domain
Many of the rights protected under the 5th amendment date back to the Magna Carta of 1215.
In the 1700s, Parliament established the admiralty courtto enforce the Navigation Acts against the actions of colonial smugglers.In these trials, colonists would be transported to Britain to face trial without a jury in front of a British judge, and the burden of proof was placed on the defendant. Colonists felt that these admiralty courts violated their rights as British subjects.
The 5th Amendment – along with the 6th – protects the rights of the accused.
During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpusand ordered the prosecution of Confederate sympathizers in special military tribunals. Unlike civilian courts, military tribunals were held in secret, carried no presumption of “innocent until proven guilty,” and had no civilians on the jury. In Ex Parte Milligan (1866), the Supreme Court ruled these military tribunals unconstitutional.
In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court greatly expanded the rights of those accused of crimes.One of the most famous cases of this era, Miranda v. Arizona (1966), fully established the right against self-incrimination. Subsequent to this ruling, police are nowrequired to inform suspects of their right to remain silent and their right to an attorney. If police fail to “mirandize” suspects, any statement the suspect makes cannot be used against them in court.
6th 1791 Rights of the accused
Speedy public trial by a jury of peers
Compulsory attendance of witnesses & right to confront them
Assistance of counsel
Many of the rights protected under the 5th amendment date back to the Magna Carta of 1215.
In the 1700s, Parliament established the admiralty courtto enforce the Navigation Acts against the actions of colonial smugglers.In these trials, colonists would be transported to Britain to face trial without a jury, they would be tried in front of a British judge, and the burden of proof was placed on the defendant. Colonists felt that these admiralty courts violated their rights as British subjects.
Like the 5th Amendment, the 6th Amendment protects the rights of the accused.
In the 1960s, under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, the Supreme Court greatly expanded the rights of those accused of crimes.
One of the most famous cases of this era, Gideon v. Wainwright (1960), established the right of all defendants to have an attorney. If defendants are determined to be indigent, the state must appoint a lawyer to defend them. Court-appointed attorneys who defend poor clients are often called public defenders.
7th 1791 Right to a jury trial in certain civil cases
British subjects and American colonists were suspicious of trials decided without juries, since judges often had close ties to the king.
As Revolutionary unrest grew in the 1760s and 1770s, King George III abolished the right of trial by jury in the colonies.
…
8th 1791 No cruel and unusual punishment
The protection against cruel and unusual punishment dates back to the English Bill of Rights of 1689.
In the 1970s, the Supreme Court briefly suspended use of the death penalty. In the case of Furman v. Georgia (1972), the court ruled that capital punishment was “cruel and unusual” because death sentences handed out to defendants in an arbitrary and inconsistent manner.
Four years later, with new sentencing guidelines in place, the court reauthorized the use of the death penalty in Gregg v. Georgia.
9th 1791 Non-enumerated rights
The Antifederalists worried that the absence of a specifically listed right would be interpreted as a denial of that right.
The 9th Amendment has been used to protect certain fundamental rights not enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
Although the word “privacy” is not mentioned in the Bill of Rights, most Americans agree that it is a basic right that deserves legal protection under the 9th Amendment. Privacy has played a
particularly important role in Supreme Court decisions on reproductive rights.
In the case of Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that a law banning married couples from using contraceptiveswas a violation of marital privacy.
In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court legalized abortion as a matter of women’s right to privacy and quality medical care.
10th
1791 States’ rights (reserved rights)
Antifederalistsfeared the creation of a strong central government that might violate the rights of statesand individual citizens.
They demanded the passage of the 10th Amendment to explicitly protect states rights.
The amendment says that all rights not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people.
The question of how much authority should be granted to the national government has been one of the most contentious questions in American history.
An especially fierce struggle between the state and federal governments raged from the time of national independence in the late 1700s until the end of the Civil War in 1865.
This conflict centered on two main questions concerning states’ rightsand the 10th Amendment:
1) Nullification – Do states have the right to disregard or cancel federal laws?
2) Secession – Do states have the right to sever ties with the U.S. government and declare their independence?
Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-
Republican party claimed that under the 10th Amendment, states had the right to interpret and cancel federal laws that they felt were unconstitutional. When President John Adams signed the Alien & Sedition Acts, Democratic-Republicans argued that these laws should be nullified by the states. The argument for nullification was laid out in the Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions, authored in secret by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
The argument for nullification was weakened somewhat with the Supreme Court’s decision in Marbury v. Madison(1803). In this decision, Chief Justice John Marshall wrote that the courts – not the states – had the power to interpret and strike down federal laws, a power known as judicial review.Marshall was a staunch Federalist who authored numerous other decisions strengthening the power of the national government over the states.
Ironically, it was a group of Federalists who next questioned the authority of the national government. During the War of 1812, New England Federalists called together a meeting known as the Hartford Convention. The delegates at this meeting argued threatened nullification and secession if New England interests were not given greater consideration in the national government. But the war soon ended, and the Federalist cause faded.
In 1828, Congress passed a “Tariff of Abominations” which protected northern industries from foreign competition, but harmed southern consumers. Vice President John C. Calhoun wrote the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, arguing for the nullification of the tariff. President Andrew Jackson did not tolerate what he viewed as insubordination, and threatened to send troops into South Carolina to collect tariff duties.
In the mid-1800s, southern states feared that the federal government would outlaw slavery. Southern advocates of nullification and secession began to grow louder again. Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, the southseceded from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America. America’s bloodiest war ensued, the Civil War. When the war ended, the south was defeated and it appeared that the idea of national supremacy had defeated the concept of states’ rights.
However, the African American civil rights struggle of the 1950s and 1960s provoked a brief revival of the idea of states’ rights. Southern governors such as Alabama’s George Wallacetried to obstruct the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education by refusing to integrate schools in their states. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and
Johnson authorized the use of the U.S. military and federal marshals to force southern governors to comply with civil rights protections.
Current debates over same-sex marriage and the decriminalization of marijuanahave drawn renewed attention to the 10th Amendment. Some states have laws that contradict federal laws on these issues. It remains to be seen how these issues will be resolved.
The New Republic AmendmentsAmendment
Date
Provisions
Origins Legacy
11th
1795 Sovereign immunity
In the case of Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), the Supreme Court allowed a citizen of South Carolina to sue the state of Georgia.
Fearing a rash of reckless lawsuits, states demanded the passage of the 11th Amendment which says that a state may not be sued by a citizen of different
This was the first amendment to be ratified after the Bill of Rights.
The 11th Amendment was also the first amendment that was intended to negate a Supreme Court decision.
state. This is the legal principle known as sovereign immunity.
12th
1804 Electoral College reform
In 1796, John Adams received the most electoral votes, and was thus elected president. However, under the rules of the Electoral College at that time, the second-highest vote-getter was chosen as vice president.
This resulted in two political enemies – Federalist John Adams and Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson – serving together in the White House as president and vice president. Jefferson and Adams were constantly at odds.
A similar problem in the election of 1800 led to the passage of the 12th Amendment, which essentially provides for the joint election of president and vice
The 12th Amendment solved the most glaring problems with the Electoral College, but criticisms of the presidential election process have continued.
It is not uncommon for a president to be elected with less than half of the popular vote, especially when a third party candidate enjoys strong voter support.
In fact, there have been four elections when a candidate won more popular votes than his opponent, but lost the Electoral College:
In 1824, Andrew Jackson won a plurality of the popular vote butJohn Quincy Adams won the electoral vote and became president.
In 1876, Samuel Tilden won a majority of the popular vote butRutherford Hayes won the electoral vote and became president.
In 1888, Grover Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote butBenjamin Harrison won the electoral vote and became president.
In 2000, Al Gore won a plurality of the popular vote butGeorge W. Bush won the electoral vote and became president.
presidenton the same ballot.
The Reconstruction Amendments
Amendment
Date
Provisions
Origins Legacy
13th
1865 Abolition of slavery
When Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, it only applied to slaves in rebel-held territories. Slaves in the Union’s “border states” (Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky and Missouri) were unaffected by Lincoln’s proclamation.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in all U.S. states and territories. It was swiftly ratified by northern states and some “reconstructed”
Although the 13th Amendment put an end to chattelslavery, African Americans still faced unjust labor arrangements like sharecropping and tenant farming. Under these systems, freedmen found themselves mired in debt. They were oftenforced to continue to work for the same landowner until they had paid off their debt.
The 13th Amendment does not protect prisoners against forced labor. In the late 1800s, some states passed vagrancy laws which required workers to sign extended work contracts and have proof of employment or face arrest. These laws disproportionately targeted African Americans, and ultimately created predominantly black “chain gang” prison labor.
southern states in 1865.
14th
1868 Citizenship by birth
Privileges and immunities
Due process
Repudiation of Confederate debts
In the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sanford, the Supreme Court declared that African Americans were not citizens and had “no rights that a white man was bound to respect.”
After emancipation, Radical Republicans in Congress sought to ensure that African Americans achieved full citizenship by birth on American soil and equal protection under the law through the passage of the 14th Amendment.
Most constitutional amendments protect citizens from actions of the federal government. But the Radical Republicans knew that southern states would obstruct civil rights protections, so the text of the 14th
Southern states undermined the 14th Amendment by institutingblack codes and Jim Crow laws that relegated African Americans to second-class citizenship. These laws limited African Americans’ rights to testify and bring suits in court, restricted black employment to certain occupations, and set up a system of racial segregation.
African Americans filed suits to overturn discriminatory laws, but the Supreme Court offered very narrow interpretations of the 14th Amendment in the late 1800s. In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873), the court ruled that the 14th Amendment protects only the rights granted by U.S. citizenship, not the rights granted by state citizenship. And in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the court legalized racial segregation under the logic of “separate but equal” facilities. These rulingsset a precedent for more than a half century of racial discrimination under state laws.
The World War II era saw gradual progress toward racial equality and integration. Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order in 1941 banning racial discrimination in federal government employment. After World War II, Harry Truman issued an executive order shortly after the war thatintegrated the armed forces.
In the 1950s, under the leadership of attorney Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund launched a new
Amendment declares that “no state shall” violate the rights of citizens.
At first, most southern states refused to approve the 14th Amendment. So in 1867, U.S. Congress passed a series of laws known as the Reconstruction Acts which divided the south into five military districts. Under military rule, southern states were forced to ratify the 14th Amendment before they could be readmitted to the Union.
The 14th Amendment also repudiated the Confederate war debt. This meant that the U.S. government would not repay loans to foreign nations that had aided southern states during the Civil War.
series of lawsuits to challenge segregation in public education. The landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ordered an end to racial segregation in public schools and overturned the “separate but equal” rule established by the Plessycase.
In 1971, the court ruled in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education that school districts may require cross-district busing in order to integrate schools.
Another effect of the 14th Amendment is its role in expandingother constitutional rights. The Supreme Court has developed a doctrine known as incorporation, which holds that the 14th Amendment’s “due process” clause protects citizens not only from actions of the federal government but also from the actions of state governments. The Supreme Court has issued dozens of decisions that incorporated the protections of the Bill of Rights against the states in a case-by-case basis.
15th
1870 Universal male suffrage
Prior to 1820, most states restricted voting eligibility to white males who could meet property ownership requirements.
During the Jacksonian Age of the 1820s-1840s, states reduced or eliminated the property requirement, beginning the era of universal white male suffrage. Voter turnout soared and political campaigns began to appeal to the masses rather than simply the elite.
After the Civil War, Radical Republicans sought to ensure that African Americans were guaranteed full voting rights with the ratification of the 15th
Amendment. The 15th Amendment created universal male suffrage without regard to race.
For a brief period in the 1860s and 1870s, newly-enfranchised African Americans vigorously exercised their right to vote. Black voters joined with white “scalawags” (southern Republicans) to form a powerful voting bloc that supported President Ulysses S. Grant.
They also elected a number of Republicans – black and white - to the Congressional delegations of southern states. In 1870, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first black man elected to the U.S. Senate. Later that year, Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first African American in the House of Representatives.
But Southern Democrats slowly eroded the voting power of African Americans by erecting barriers to suffragelike literacy tests and poll taxes. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups terrorized black political leaders and intimidated voters. As Reconstruction came to an end with the Compromise of 1877, President Rutherford Hayes removed the last federal troops from the south. With the absence of federal authority, Democrats seized control of what they called the “Solid South” – solidly white supremacist and solidly Democratic. The black vote waslargely suppressed for the next 70 years.
Native Americans lived ina legal limbo when it came to suffrage. Depending on tribal affiliation and location, some Native
Americans could vote and some could not. In 1924, Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act, which recognized the full citizenship and suffrage rights of all Native Americans.
African American voters – when and where they could actually cast ballots – tended to vote for Republicans until the 1930s. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s promise of sweeping reforms to bring the U.S. out of the throes of the Great Depression appealed to African Americans. Black voters began an exodus from the Republican Party to join the Democrats. The Democratic Party’s powerful New Deal Coalition – consisting of black voters, organized labor, white southerners, social liberals, and urban political machines – claimed victory in all but two presidential elections from 1932-1968.
The issue of race threatened to split the New Deal coalition. After President Truman issued an executive order integrating the armed forces, southern Democrats split from the party and formed the States Rights Democratic Party, or “Dixiecrats.” The Dixiecrats carried the deep South in the 1948, but failed to spoil the election for Truman.
The 1963 March on Washington focused attention on the obstacles standing in the way of black voters. In response, Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 24th Amendment. These laws did away with
the poll taxes and literacy tests and allowed the federal government to register voters in states that practiced voter discrimination.
The Democrats’ heavy emphasis on civil rights alienated some white voters, some of whom migrated toward the Republican Party. The Republican “southern strategy” of wooing working class whites played a role in the failed presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater in 1964 and the successful campaign of Richard Nixon in 1968.
Today, most black voters remain loyal to the Democratic Party and voted overwhelmingly in favor of Barack Obama in the 2008 election. Obama became the nation’s first black president and won a close reelection campaign in 2012 with strong black voter turnout.
The Progressive AmendmentsAmendment
Date
Provisions
Origins Legacy
1 1913 Income tax In the 1800s, the main sources of federal revenues were the sale of government bonds, the liquor tax, high
Progressives supported the income tax because they viewed it as a way to redistribute wealth and narrow the growing gap between rich and poor. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Underwood Tariff in 1913, which lowered tariff rates
6th tariffs, and the sale of public lands in the west.
But by the early 1900s, these revenues began to fade. The best public lands in the west had already been sold, given away in land grants, or designated as national parks.
Many Populists and Progressives opposed the sale of alcohol on moral grounds.
They also pushed for lower tariffs in order to provide relief to consumers.
In addition, the size of the federal bureaucracy was growing due to political patronage.
It was clear that a new source of revenue would be needed.The 16th Amendment provided that revenue, instituting a tax on personal income.
and replaced the lost revenue with a progressive (graduated) income tax.Under a progressiveincome tax, high earners pay a larger percentage of their income than low income workers. In other words, “the more you make, the more they take.”
In the first years of the income tax, rates on the wealthy rose steadily from 7% to a peak of 77% during World War I.
At the urging of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon, the tax rates on top earners were reduced to 24% in the “Roaring Twenties,” a period of rapid economic growth.
During the Great Depression, Franklin Rooseveltsupported income tax rates on the wealthy of over 80%. Some politicians pushed for even greater measures. Louisiana senator Huey Long proposed a “Share Our Wealth” plan that would have capped yearly income at $1 million, taxed large fortunes, and used the revenues to redistribute $5,000 to every American household.Though Long was assassinated and his plan was never implemented, income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans remained high through most of the 20th century.
In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan proposed a “trickle-down” theory of supply-side economics. Reagan believed that reducing taxes on the rich would allow businesses to hire more workers, pay their
workers better wages, and stimulate economic growth. Reagan’s tax reforms cut the top income tax ratein half.
President Barack Obama has proposed increasing taxes on the top income bracket from 35% to 39.6%.
17th
1913 Direct election of senators
The Framers of the Constitution hoped to balance the interests of the small number of elites against what they called the “majority faction” of the common people. The bicameral legislature established under the Constitution provided for the division of lawmaking power to be divided among two houses to balance these
Today, all U.S. senators are elected by popular vote in their home states.
In addition to the 17th Amendment, Progressives in the early 1900s passed other voting reforms to increase the power of citizens and create a more direct democracy, including:
Initiative – voters propose a law by collecting signatures on a petition
Referendum – citizens vote directly on a proposed law, rather than having state legislatures decide the issue
Recall – a special election in which voters can remove a public official from office
competing forces.
The seats in the House of Representativesare distributed to the states based on proportional representation. Representatives are elected directly by the people.
The Senate was created to protect the interests of both small states and the elite. Consequently, it provides for equal representation (two senators per state). Under the original wording of the Constitution, senators werechosenby state legislatures.
Populists and Progressives viewed the Senate as an obstacle to the regulation of powerful industries like railroads. They eventually succeeded in direct election of senators with the ratification of the 17th
Amendment.
18th
1919 Prohibition of alcohol
Alcohol – and the taxes levied on it – played an important role in early American history.
Britain sought to achieve a favorable balance of trade with its colonies by passing the 1733 Molasses Act and the 1765 Sugar Act. Both acts angered colonists because they interfered with the trade of alcohol.
Alexander Hamilton’s economic plan sought to pay off the national debt, partly by placing a tax on liquor, sparking the unsuccessful Whisky Rebellion of the 1790s. Nearly a century later, the corrupt practices of liquor tax collectors were exposed during the Whisky Ring scandal, tarnishing the reputation of the Grant administration.
The Second Great
The Volstead Act clarified the language of the 18th Amendment. It defined the term “intoxicating” to mean any beverage containing more than .5% alcohol by volume. This essentially banned all alcoholic beverages.
Prohibition, however, was poorly enforcedduring the Roaring Twenties. An enormousblack market for alcohol flourished. Americans skirted the law by creating illegal bars called speakeasies. Bootleggers manufactured “moonshine” in hidden stills, fermented “bathtub gin” in their homes, and smuggled alcohol into the country from Cuba, Mexico and Canada.
Because alcohol was illegal, the trade in liquor was often controlled by organized crime rings like Al Capone’s mafia syndicate in Chicago. Caponebribed or intimidated police and judges to turn a blind eye to his illicit activities. At the same time, Capone waged bloody turf wars against rival gangs. Prohibition saw a dramatic increase in urban violent crime.
Prohibition’s popularity waned as the 1920s progressed. When the stock market crashed in 1929, the federal government needed additional revenue to combat the Great Depression.In 1932, “wet” candidate Franklin Roosevelt trounced “dry” incumbent Herbert Hoover in the presidential election. Within the first year of Roosevelt’s presidency, states ratified the 21st Amendment, repealing Prohibition.
Awakening in the 1820s and 1830s gave birth to a variety of reform movements, including the temperance movement. The goal of the temperance movement was to reduce or completely outlaw alcohol consumption.
Temperance advocates blamed alcohol for wasted incomes, marital infidelity, sexually transmitted diseases, early death, violent crime, mob violence, and domestic abuse.
Many leaders of the temperance movement were Protestant ministers who saw alcoholism as a sin. Other leaders were women who saw alcohol as a “corrupter of men.” But the temperance movement was also supported by those with less noble beliefs.
Manynativists opposed alcohol sales because they disliked the immigrant communities whose social activities often involved alcohol consumption.
In the 1910s, the temperance movement gained a critical mass. The 16th Amendment allowed the government to collect income taxes, making federal revenues less dependent on the liquor tax. In addition, U.S. involvement in the First World War made some citizens feel guilty about consuming alcohol while American soldiers were making terrible sacrifices in the trenches of Europe.
In 1919, ratification of the 18th Amendment was complete. The amendment banned
the sale of “intoxicating” liquors. Thus began the era of Prohibition.
19th
1920 Women’s suffrage
Since the earliest days of American independence, there were women who demanded the right to vote, but the road to suffrage was a long and difficult one.
Abigail Adams famously wrote to her husband demanding the new government grant women’s suffrage.
In the mid-1800s, women became leaders of a variety of reform movements, but had no direct voice in government. Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized a convention of female leaders at Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments called for women’s suffrage, among other reforms.Susan B.
The 19th Amendment led to surge in voter turnout, just as the elimination of property requirements had in the 1820s and 1830s.
With the passage of the 19th Amendment, NAWSA refocused its efforts and changed its name to the League of Women Voters (LWV). Today, the LWV registers voters and issues nonpartisan voter guides.
The increased political clout of women eventually drew attention to social issues that had been largely ignored, including reproductive rights, sexual assault, and “glass ceilings” in the workplace.
Anthony became a leading voice in the women’s suffrage movement and was convicted in 1872 for illegally voting in an act of civil disobedience.
A variety of suffrage organizations sprouted in the 19th century. These organizations merged into the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1890.
Women gained the right to vote on a state-by-state basis in the late 1800s, especially in the west. During World War I, women made one final push for suffrage, eventually winning the support of President Woodrow Wilson achieving ratification of the 19th
Amendment.
The New Deal AmendmentsAmendment
Date
Provisions
Origins Legacy
20th
1933 Shortened the “lame duck” period
As the economy spiraled out of control in the Great Depression, most Americans rejected the leadership of Herbert Hoover. His opponent, Franklin D. Roosevelt, won the presidential election of 1932 in a landslide.
FDR, however, was unable to take quick executive action because of the 4-month “lame duck” period that lasted from the November election until the March inauguration.
This long interim period was a throwback to the 1700s, when poorly maintained roads prevented a swift transition of political
The 20th Amendment allows for a rapid transition of presidential leadership, especially when voters reject the incumbent party’s leadership.
However, the shortened lame duck period has also increased the sense of urgency in resolving close presidential elections. In 2000, close election results in Florida led to a flurry of lawsuits that delayed the final results of the Electoral College. The Supreme Court issued its decision in Bush v. Gore on December 12, 2000 – a mere three weeks before Bush’s inauguration.
leadership.
The 20th Amendment shortened the lame duck period by moving the inauguration date forward from March to January.
21st
1933 Repeal of Prohibition
See 18th Amendment, above.
See 18th Amendment, above.
22n
d
1951 Presidential term limits
The U.S. Constitutionoriginally placed no limit on the number of terms a president could serve.
In 1796, many Americans hoped that George Washington would run for a third term. But Washington declined, establishingthe precedent of a two-term limit. No president successfully won a third term until Franklin D.
Some political reformers suggest that term limits should also be imposed on members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.
House members in particular often run unopposed and sail to easy reelections because congressional districts lean heavily toward one party or another. This can lead to very long tenures of house members and – critics charge – complacency and corruption.
Roosevelt in 1940.
FDR’s leadership during the Great Depression and World War II made him a popular president, but his critics raised fears that the executive branch was becoming more authoritarian. They opposed his 1940 campaign with the slogan “No Man is Good Three Times.”
The 22nd Amendment was proposed in 1947, two years after FDR’s death. It limits the president to two full terms of four years each, plus an additional term of 2 years if they inherit the office upon the death of a sitting president.
Recent Amendments
Amendment
Date
Provisions
Origins Legacy
23rd
1961 Washington, D.C. residents may vote in the presidential election
The city of Washington, D.C. was created as a special federal district, politically independent of any state government.
Washington, D.C. residents do not vote for Senators or Representatives, and until the passage of the 23rd Amendment, they could not vote for president.
The 23rd Amendment allocates the same number of electoral votes to Washington, D.C. as the number of electoral votes in the smallest state.
The first presidential election conducted after the ratification of the 23rd Amendment was in 1964. In that election – and every election since – Washington, D.C. has cast its three electoral votes for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Although D.C. residents cannow vote for president, they cannot elect Senators or members of the House of Representatives. Consequently, D.C. residents have complained that they must pay federal taxes without having a voice in the federal legislative process.
In 2000, the District of Columbia began issuing license plates reading “Taxation Without Representation” to protest against their lack of legislative power. The phrase harkens back to the days of colonial protest against British tax policies.
24th
1964 Abolition of the poll tax
The poll tax dates back to the earliest days of independence, but use of poll taxes faded in the early 1800s as Jacksonian Democracy sought to bring poor laborers and farmers in the
Some civil rights activists today have compared the poll tax to recent laws requiring photo identification (driver’s license, military ID, etc.) at polling places. They claim that voter ID laws unfairly discriminate against poor and elderly voters.
In the 2008 case of Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, the Supreme Court
political process.
Poll taxes began to reappear in the late 1800s following the ratification of the 15th
Amendment, which guaranteed the right to vote to newly freed slaves. Southern white supremacists utilized poll taxes to block these freedmen from voting. The poll tax also had the effect of disfranchising some poor whites, though many were exempted from the tax by the “grandfather clause.”
The New Deal coalition of the 1930s united poor blacks and whites under the Democratic Party’s banner. Reform efforts succeeded in repealing the poll tax in some, but not all, southern states.
At the urging of the Civil Rights Movement, President John F.
ruled that voter ID laws do not violate the constitution. The court ruled that such laws do not place an undue burden on voters, and that they help to prevent voter fraud.
Kennedy supported the ratification of the 24th Amendment. The amendment was ratified in 1964, outlawing the poll taxes still in use in five southern states.
25th
1967 Presidential succession
With the assassination of President Kennedy and the Cold War possibility of a nuclear strike against Washington, DC, the 25h Amendment clarified the chain of succession upon the death or incapacitation of the president.
The 25th Amendment has been invoked several times when presidents have gone into surgery, temporarily elevating the vice president to acting president.
Most notably, the amendment was invoked following the Watergate Scandal to elevate Gerald Ford to the presidency upon the resignation of Richard Nixon, and to make allow Nelson Rockefeller vice president, replacing the vacancy left by Ford.
26th
1971 Voting age lowered to 18
The Vietnam War draft was set at a minimum age of 18.
Of those drafted, 57% received deferments or exemptions due to enrollment in college or employment in the defense industry. Many of those who did not qualify for exemption were poor or people of color. As the war dragged on, it became less and
The 26th Amendment increased the number of eligible voters, though voter turnout among young people has traditionally been lower than turnout among the middle aged and elderly.
less popular at home and racial tensions and low morale among troops damaged the effectiveness of the army.
Because the voting age in some states was still 21, young soldiers complained that they should not have to fight if they did not have the right to vote.
The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 in all states.
27th
1992 Congressional pay raises
The 27th Amendment, which prohibits Congressional pay increases from taking effect until the next session of Congress, has a very long history.
Proposed in 1788, it was ratified by only a handful of states, and soon forgotten. Nearly 200 years later, a student at the University of Texas at Austin unearthed the
Since the ratification of the 27th Amendment, Congress has voted to increase its own salary 11 times, from $129,500 in 1992 to $174,000 in 2012.
amendment and led a successful campaign that led to its ratification.
Failed Constitutional Amendments
Amendment
Date Provisions
Origins Legacy
Child Labor Amendment
Passed Congress in 1924
Still active, but has not been ratified by any states since 1937
Abolition of child labor
This amendment was introduced by progressive reformers who hoped to overturn two conservative Supreme Court decisions denying the federal government power to regulate child labor.
The amendment has largely become moot because New Deal labor laws outlawed industrial child labor.
Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Passed Congress in 1972
Equal constitutional rights for women
After a successful campaign to ratify the 19th Amendment,
The ERA was quickly ratified by 30 states. Conservative groups then launched a vigorous effort to block ratification by any more states. They
Failed its deadline in 1982
suffragist Alice Paul, drafted the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923. Paul hoped that the ERA would give women full legal equality. But the amendment failed to gain enough Congressional support to be sent to the states for ratification.
The amendment languished until the new feminist movement of the 1960s revived the debate over the ERA. The National Organization for Women (NOW) launched a major campaign for passage of the ERA.
In 1972, Congress approved the amendment and sent it to the states for ratification.
even succeeded in rescinding ratification of the ERA in four states that had already approved the amendment.
The most prominent leader of the “Stop ERA” campaign was Phyllis Schlafly. She argued that the ERA would upset the traditional role of women in society. Schlafly feared that ERA would make women eligible for the military draft, require the creation of unisex bathrooms, and end child support and alimony payments for divorced women.
The ERA ultimately failed, having been approved by only 35 of the 38 states required for ratification by its 1982 deadline.
Despite the failure of ERA, theEqual Pay Act,Title IX, and other laws have addressed the issue of sex discrimination on a more limited basis.
District of Columbia Voting Rights Amendment
Passed Congress in 1978
Congressional representation for
Washington, D.C. was created as a federal district distinct from all
The
Failed its deadline in 1985
Washington, D.C.
other states. Voters in the district may vote for president, but have no meaningful representation in the House or Senate.
With a population of 600,000, the city has a larger population than Vermont and Wyoming, D.C. residents argue that they should be allowed to elect Congressmen and Senators. However, the DC Voting Rights Amendment has failed to be ratified.
Flag Desecration Amendment
Proposed in 1995
Makes burning or damaging the flag in protest a crime
In the case of Texas v. Johnson, the Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag in protest is a form of “symbolic speech” protected under the 1st Amendment.
Civil libertarians celebrated the decision, while some veterans and
The amendment was introduced in Congress several times in the 1990s and 2000s, but has failed to receive enough votes to send it to the states for ratification.
Polls show public opinion divided over whether such an amendment should be added to the Constitution.
conservatives were outraged.
