PATIENT
Amendments I to XXVII
FIRST TEN
Bill of Rights, 1791
FASTEST
26th, about 3 months
SLOWEST
27th, 202 years
CHIEF COMPLAINT
What has the country changed its mind about, and what made it change?
HISTORY OF PRESENT ILLNESS
The amendments are the record of arguments the country had and settled, at least for a while. The first ten were the price of ratification: critics of the 1787 draft wanted a list of protected rights. The rest came one at a time, usually after a crisis: a court decision, a war, a scandal. Each is its own entry in the full guide: what it says, what it was fixing, how it works now.
REVIEW OF SYSTEMS
BILL OF RIGHTS
Amendments 1 to 10. Speech, religion, arms, searches, trials, punishment, and what is left to the states and the people.
RECONSTRUCTION
Amendments 13 to 15. The end of slavery, citizenship and equal protection, and the vote regardless of race.
PROGRESSIVE ERA
Amendments 16 to 19. The income tax, popular election of senators, Prohibition and women's suffrage.
MECHANICS
Amendments 11, 12, 20, 22, 23, 25 and 27. Lawsuits, elections, terms, succession and congressional pay.
VOTING
Amendments 15, 19, 24 and 26. Each widened who gets to vote and under what conditions.
PHYSICAL EXAM — STYLE & STRUCTURE
- —Only one amendment has ever been repealed: Prohibition, by the 21st.
- —Twelve amendments were proposed in 1789 and ten were ratified quickly. One of the other two took until 1992.
- —The 13th Amendment ended slavery but kept an exception for punishment of a crime.
- —The Third Amendment has never been the basis for a Supreme Court decision.
ASSESSMENT & PLAN
Start with the First, Fourth and Fourteenth, then follow any amendment you were curious about. Every claim is tagged Settled, Disputed or Popular myth with a source, and the live arguments (religion, arms, searches, punishment, citizenship) show both sides at equal length.