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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States and the oldest written national constitution still in use. Ratified in 1788, it establishes the framework of the federal government, defines the separation of powers among three branches, and protects individual rights through its amendments. Its op...
The Constitution rests on several foundational principles that distribute power and prevent its concentration. Separation of powers divides governmental authority among three distinct branches: the legislative branch makes the laws, the executive branch enforces them, and the judicial branch interprets them. This divis...
The First Amendment protects five fundamental freedoms that lie at the heart of American civil liberties. It begins with two Religion Clauses: the Establishment Clause, which prohibits the government from establishing an official religion or unduly favoring one religion over another, and the Free Exercise Clause, which...
The Reconstruction Amendments transformed American constitutional law in the wake of the Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States, except as punishment for a crime, marking the formal end of the institution of slavery and empowering Congress to enforce...
The Constitution's grants of power to the federal government are anchored in several important clauses. The Commerce Clause, found in Article I, Section 8, grants Congress the power to regulate commerce among the states, with foreign nations, and with Indian tribes. Since Gibbons v. Ogden (1824), this clause has been b...
Constitutional interpretation is the process by which courts, scholars, and the public derive meaning from the Constitution's text. Several competing schools of thought have shaped this endeavor. Originalism holds that the Constitution should be interpreted according to its original meaning at the time it was adopted,...