First Amendment Fundamental Freedoms

(Freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion.)

Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms

(Protects the right of people to keep and bear arms.)

Third Amendment Quartering Soldiers

(Prevents the government from lodging troops in private residences.)

Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures

(Protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure.)

Fifth Amendment Rights of Persons

(Enumerates certain legal rights, such as the right to be tried before a court and grand jury, the right not to be tried for the same crime twice, and the right to avoid self-incrimination. A person may plead “the fifth” and not be a witness against themself”)

Sixth Amendment Rights in Criminal Prosecutions

(Another judicial right, guarantees the right to a speedy and public court trial. This Amendment also guarantees the right to a lawyer, even when you cannot afford one. This is what public defenders do for citizens.)

Seventh Amendment Civil Trial Rights

(This Amendment gives citizens the right to take a legal suit before a jury to be settled, and if a specific award from a jury is decided upon, it is enforced.)

Eighth Amendment Cruel and Unusual Punishment

(Protects citizens from prohibitive jail fines and cruel and unusual punishment. Today it is most often brought up in relation to the death penalty.)

Ninth Amendment Unenumerated Rights

( This Amendment states that there are other universal rights not protected in the Bill of Rights and they should not be supposed just because they are not mentioned. The Father of the U.S. Constitution, James Madison wanted this Amendment introduced so people would not think all the rights of U.S. citizens were written in the Bill of Rights.)

Tenth Amendment Rights Reserved to the States and the People

(This Amendment states that any rights not reserved for the central government are reserved to the individual states that make up the “Union” or “to the people.” The intent of this Amendment was to define the differences between the State government’s power and the Federal governments power. It was included to satisfy the Anti - Federalists.)

Eleventh Amendment Suits Against States

( This Amendment prohibits the federal Courts from hearing certain lawsuits against States.)

Twelfth Amendment Election of President

(This Amendment provides the procedure for electing the President and Vice President.)

Thirteenth Amendment Abolition of Slavery

( This Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime.)

Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights

(This Amendment grants citizenship to everyone born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction and protects civil rights and political liberties.)

Fifteenth Amendment Right of Citizens to Vote

(This Amendment prohibits the Federal government and each State from denying a citizen’s right to vote on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.)

Sixteenth Amendment Income Tax

(This Amendment allows Congress to levy an income tax without apportioning it among the States on the basis of population.)

Seventeenth Amendment Popular Election of Senators

(This Amendment established the direct election of United States Senators in which Senators were elected under State legislatures.)

Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition of Liquor

(This Amendment established the prohibition of alcohol in the united State. This Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment on December 5, 1933.)

Nineteenth Amendment Women's Suffrage

(This Amendment recognized a woman’s right to vote and prohibits the United States and its States from denying the right of all citizens to vote.)

Twentieth Amendment Presidential Term and Succession

(This Amendment established some details of Presidential succession and the beginning and ending of the terms of elected Federal officials.)

Twenty-First Amendment Repeal of Prohibition

(This Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment which had mandated a nationwide prohibition on alcohol.)

Twenty-Second Amendment Presidential Term Limits

(This Amendment limits the number of times a person is eligible for election to the office of the United States to two terms.)

Twenty-Third Amendment District of Columbia Electors

(This Amendment extends the right to participate in Presidential elections to the District of Columbia.)

Twenty-Fourth Amendment Abolition of Poll Tax

(This Amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in Federal elections on payment of a Poll Tax or other types of tax.)

Twenty-Fifth Amendment Presidential Vacancy

(This Amendment clarifies that the vice president becomes president if the president dies, resigns, or is removed from office, and establishes how a vacancy in the office of the vice president can be filled. It also provides for the temporary transfer of the president's powers and duties to the vice president, either on the initiative of the president alone or on the initiative of the vice president together with a majority of the president's cabinet. In either case, the vice president becomes acting president until the presidential powers and duties are returned to the president.)

Twenty-Sixth Amendment Reduction of Voting Age

(This Amendment provides that the right to vote may not be denied on account of age, by any state or by the United States, to any American citizen ages 18 or older.)

Twenty-Seventh Amendment Congressional Compensation

(This Amendment prohibits changes to Congress members' salaries from taking effect until after an election of representatives.)