Constitutional Amendments Table
| # | Ratified | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1791 | Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition |
| 2 | 1791 | Right to keep and bear arms; militia |
| 3 | 1791 | No quartering of soldiers in private homes |
| 4 | 1791 | No unreasonable searches and seizures |
| 5 | 1791 | Due process, grand jury, self-incrimination, takings |
| 6 | 1791 | Speedy public trial, counsel, impartial jury (criminal) |
| 7 | 1791 | Jury trial in civil cases |
| 8 | 1791 | No excessive bail, fines; no cruel and unusual punishment |
| 9 | 1791 | Unlisted rights retained by the people |
| 10 | 1791 | Powers reserved to states or the people |
| 11 | 1795 | State sovereign immunity from suits |
| 12 | 1804 | Separate electoral ballots for president and VP |
| 13 | 1865 | Abolished slavery |
| 14 | 1868 | Citizenship, due process, equal protection |
| 15 | 1870 | Vote not denied by race |
| 16 | 1913 | Federal income tax |
| 17 | 1913 | Direct election of senators |
| 18 | 1919 | Prohibition of alcohol |
| 19 | 1920 | Vote not denied by sex |
| 20 | 1933 | Terms begin January; succession for president-elect |
| 21 | 1933 | Repealed Prohibition (18th) |
| 22 | 1951 | Two-term limit for presidents |
| 23 | 1961 | DC presidential electors |
| 24 | 1964 | No poll tax in federal elections |
| 25 | 1967 | VP vacancy; presidential disability |
| 26 | 1971 | Voting age lowered to 18 |
| 27 | 1992 | Congressional pay raises take effect after next election |
The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times in 233 years, and the table's shape is the argument: ten amendments arrived at once in 1791 (the Bill of Rights, the price of ratification itself), and only seventeen more have cleared the two-thirds-plus-three-quarters bar since. Nothing has passed in the generation since the 27th in 1992 - the longest quiet stretch since the Civil War gap between the 12th (1804) and 13th (1865).
The clustering tells the political history better than any textbook. Reconstruction rebuilt the Union with three amendments in five years (abolition, citizenship, the vote); the Progressive era ran a perfect streak of four from 1913 to 1920 (income tax, direct Senate elections, Prohibition, women's suffrage); and the postwar wave modernized the machinery of power (term limits, DC electors, disability, the 18-year-old vote). Every other era - including ours - produced talk, not amendments.
Two rows are the famous outliers. The 21st is the only repeal in the book: it erased the 18th's Prohibition in 1933, fourteen years after ratification, proving the ban unenforceable. The 27th is the marathon: proposed by Madison in 1789 alongside the Bill of Rights, it required Congress to wait an election before raising its own pay, sat forgotten for two centuries, and was ratified by the 38th state in 1992 - 202 years and 7 months later.
How to use
- Find any amendment by number: the subject column says what it changed, the year column when it took effect. The first ten share one year - they were ratified as a single package on December 15, 1791.
- Read the bursts, not the average: 1865-1870 (Reconstruction), 1913-1920 (Progressive), 1951-1971 (postwar). Each burst is a political realignment converting into constitutional text within a decade.
- Answer the classic trivia from the table: only one repeal (21st over 18th), one amendment about Congressional pay (27th), the two-term limit (22nd, 1951, after FDR's four elections), and the voting-age drop to 18 (26th, 1971, the fastest modern ratification at 100 days).
- Check the near-misses against the table: the Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress in 1972 but never reached 38 states; the District of Columbia voting-rights amendment (1978) expired unratified - both would be the 28th.
Frequently asked questions
How many amendments does the Constitution have?
Twenty-seven: the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights, ratified together in 1791, plus seventeen more. The last, the 27th, bars congressional pay raises from taking effect before the next election - it was ratified in 1992, 202 years after Madison proposed it.
Why is the 27th amendment's story so strange?
It never expired. Madison proposed it in 1789 with the original twelve; ten became the Bill of Rights and the pay-raise amendment, with no deadline in its text, lingered. A University of Texas student rediscovered it in 1982, a ratification campaign followed state by state, and Michigan's vote in 1992 supplied the 38th ratification - the longest proposal-to-ratification gap in constitutional history.
What is the only amendment ever repealed?
The 18th (1919), which instituted Prohibition, was repealed by the 21st (1933) - the only time one amendment has cancelled another. The 14-year ban drove organized crime's rise and proved a constitutional morality experiment unworkable; the 21st's ratification conventions were deliberately chosen over state legislatures to let wet delegates vote it through quickly.
Why were the first ten amendments added at all?
Several states ratified the Constitution only on the promise of a rights bill: Anti-Federalists feared a strong central government with no explicit protections. Madison drafted twelve in 1789; the states ratified ten (the two failed ones dealt with congressional apportionment and pay - and the pay one eventually became the 27th).