Amendments 11-27

11th Amendment Lawsuits Against States Added to the Constitution just a few years after the Bill of Rights, the Eleventh Amendment protects the states against lawsuits in federal courts by citizens of other states or a foreign nation. The Eleventh Amendment is the first constitutional amendment to specifically overturn a Supreme Court decision. Although the Eleventh Amendment was not very significant for many years, the Supreme Court has lately used the amendment in several cases to strike down federal laws that it believes overstep state power.

12th Amendment Election of Executives The Twelfth Amendment changed the way the president and vice president were chosen under Article II. Originally, the electoral college voted for two people on the same ballot, without distinguishing between offices. The person who received the most electoral votes became president; the runner-up was vice president. But the advent of political parties, and a tie in the electoral college, prompted Americans to adopt the Twelfth Amendment in 1804 to create separate balloting for the president and the vice president.

13th Amendment Slavery Abolished From the beginning of the American republic, slaves argued that they, too, were included in the Declaration of Independence’s self-evident truth that “all men are created equal.” Sectional division over the “peculiar institution” of American slavery would plague the nation until at last it culminated in a civil war that cost more than six hundred thousand lives. But out of that war came a constitutional amendment resolving, once and for all, that slavery could not exist in a government created by “we the people.”

14th Amendment Civil Rights Although the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery, it did not resolve the legal status of former slaves under federal and state law. After the Civil War, many southern states passed “Black Codes” designed to severely restrict the lives of newly freed slaves and keep them in virtual slavery. Through the Fourteenth Amendment, former slaves were granted citizenship and promised “equal protection of the laws.” This protection from unreasonable discrimination eventually extended to other groups as well. The Fourteenth Amendment became the basis for claims of legal equality.

15th Amendment Right To Vote The Fourteenth Amendment did not explicitly grant the vote to African American men, although it decreased congressional representation for states that denied them the vote. Congress debated proposals for an amendment forbidding discrimination in voting based on race, and some Americans argued that women’s suffrage should also be included. But the amendment passed by Congress in 1869 and ratified in 1870 did not mention gender. As a result, it benefited only men until 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified. And, for almost one hundred years after its ratification, the Fifteenth Amendment offered very little protection to African American men, either.

16th Amendment Income Tax During the early 1900s, as part of the Progressive Era, several amendments were added to the Constitution. The Sixteenth Amendment overturned a Supreme Court case in order to allow taxes on incomes. This increased federal revenue and allowed the national government to play a larger role in American life. It also gave many Americans a favorite target of criticism.

17th Amendment Direct Election of Senators Another reform of the Progressive Era was allowing the people to select U.S. senators, rather than having state legislatures choose them, as originally provided in Article I. Advocates of the Seventeenth Amendment hoped to avoid the corrupt practice in which political machines, backed by corporate wealth, hand-picked senatorial candidates. Because of such practices, the Senate was often referred to as a “millionaire’s club.”

18th Amendment Prohibition The temperance movement, which sought to restrict or ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages, had a long history in the United States. The first temperance organization was formed in 1808, and many states had outlawed alcohol before the Eighteenth Amendment nationalized its prohibition. But with the onset of the Progressive Era, Americans seemed more confident in the ability of constitutional amendments to reform human behavior. When the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified in 1919, many Americans believed that crime, poverty, and broken homes would be outlawed along with alcohol.

19th Amendment Woman Sufferage In 1776, Abigail Adams warned her husband John to “remember the ladies” in the new system of laws that America would adopt. But although women played a critical role in America’s political life, they would not achieve the vote nationwide until almost 150 years later. In 1919, Congress finally approved the Nineteenth Amendment granting women suffrage throughout America. It was ratified in 1920, with Tennessee providing the necessary approval by one vote—after a mother lobbied her son in the state legislature on the amendment’s behalf.

20th Amendment Lame Duck Sessions The Twentieth Amendment is best known for reducing the time in which members of Congress who had been voted out of office, or lame ducks, could continue to legislate. It accomplished this goal by moving the inauguration dates of the president and members of Congress from March to January. The Twentieth Amendment also specifies who shall act as president if the president-elect dies or has not been chosen by the date of inauguration. During the 2000 election, the latter provision—although not used—became increasingly more relevant.

21th Amendment Repeal of Prohibition Only thirteen years after Prohibition took effect, the Eighteenth Amendment was repealed by the Twenty-first Amendment. This was the first time a constitutional amendment had ever been repealed. Widespread corruption and lawbreaking caused many Americans to believe that the “noble experiment” of Prohibition had failed. In addition, breweries and distilleries promised more jobs for the unemployed during the depths of the Great Depression. Some Americans argue that today’s war on drugs is similar to the Prohibition movement, and with equal success.

22th Amendment Limit on Presidential Terms George Washington established the tradition that a president would only seek two terms in office. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt broke that precedent. During the crises of the Great Depression and World War II, FDR was elected to his third term in 1940 and his fourth term in 1944. He died in April 1945, soon after his fourth inauguration. A new Republican Congress quickly sought to set term limits for future presidents in 1947, and the Twenty-second Amendment was ratified in 1951.

23th Amendment Voting in the District of Columbia Article I provides for the creation of a federal district to be the nation’s capital, but it does not deal with suffrage for the District of Columbia’s residents. Some scholars argue that the District of Columbia, like any other federal territory, was to be eligible for statehood once it reached sufficient population. Others believe that the District, which was once part of Maryland, must always remain under congressional control to preserve national interests. In 1960, Congress proposed the Twenty-third Amendment to give D.C. residents the vote in presidential elections, and it was ratified in 1961. However, D.C. residents remain the only U.S. citizens who pay federal income taxes and have no voting representation in Congress.

24th Amendment Abolition of Poll Taxes The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits the use of poll taxes in federal elections, either in primaries or general elections. Such taxes, also known as head taxes, were often used in a discriminatory manner to prevent access to the ballot, especially for poor whites and racial minorities. Although only a few states still used the poll tax in the early 1960s, Congress thought the problem was best solved by a constitutional amendment, since states traditionally controlled elections. The amendment was passed by Congress in 1962 and ratified in 1964.

25th Amendment Presidential Succession The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 brought to the forefront many long-standing questions about presidential succession. When the president died, did the vice president automatically become president, or only serve as acting president? What happened when the vice presidency was vacant? Who determined when the president was disabled and incapable of carrying out official duties? The Twenty-fifth Amendment, passed by Congress in 1965 and ratified in 1967, at long last answered these questions.

26th Amendment 18-Year-Old Vote With the escalation of the Vietnam War came increased pressure to lower the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen. Young people argued that if they were old enough to die for their country, they were also old enough to vote for the leaders who sent them to war. Consequently, Congress proposed the Twenty-sixth Amendment on March 23, 1971, and it was ratified by three-fourths of the states on July 1, 1971—the fastest ever.

27th Amendment Congressional Pay When James Madison submitted his proposals for a Bill of Rights in 1789, he included a provision that prevented members of Congress from voting themselves a pay raise before the voters had a chance to kick them out of office for doing so. This amendment was approved as one of the twelve amendments submitted to the states on September 25, 1789. Only ten of these were ratified in 1791, and they became known as the Bill of Rights because they mainly protected individual rights. However, Congress had not established an official time limit for ratification of the 1789 amendments. During the 1980s, more and more states ratified the amendment limiting congressional pay raises, and it became the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992—the longest ratification in U.S. history.