3. 12th Amendment
-Changes procedure for electing President and Vice-President
• President and Vice President must come from the same party and are
elected on the same ticket
Before the 12th Amendment, the
person who received the most
electoral votes would become
President, while the second place
vote-getter would become Vice
President. Sometimes, this led to
ties in the Electoral College, or a
President/Vice President team that
were from different political
parties.
The 12th Amendment established
that the President and Vice
President must come from the
same political party and run on the
same ticket.
4. 13th Amendment
-Bans Slavery and forced labor
• “Civil War Amendment”
The 13th Amendment, passed in
1864 just before the end of the
Civil War, abolished all slavery in
the United States.
Limit: Forced Labor of
Prisoners is allowed.
5. 14th Amendment
-defines citizenship
-guarantees due process and equal protection of the law
• “Civil War Amendment”
The 14th Amendment, which
guaranteed citizenship and
equal protection of the law to all
citizens. With this amendment,
Congress attempted to try to
get every person in America
treated fairly in the eyes of the
government.
Limit: States still have power
over certain aspects of their
citizens lives
6. 15th Amendment
-Allows voting to all men regardless of race
• “Civil War Amendment”
• Women still cannot vote
The 15th Amendment, which
guaranteed all men,
regardless of race or
previous condition of
servitude, the right to vote.
Limit: citizenship, and voter
id laws
7. 16th Amendment
-Gives the authority to levy an income tax
• Government makes every working American pay taxes on the money
they make (usually about 30%)
During the Progressive Era (around
1900s), people wanted to make a
lot of changes to American society,
and they wanted the federal
government to pay for them. To
do so, the federal government
began a graduated income tax,
forcing all American citizens to pay
a portion of their profits to the
federal government every year.
8. 17th Amendment
-Establishes the direct election of Senators
• People themselves vote for their senators, not the state legislature
Before the 17th Amendment, the
state legislatures, rather than the
individual voters, would choose
who the Senators from each state
would be. Voters did not like this
because sometimes people who
wanted to be Senators would bribe
people to choose them. This led to
a lot of political corruption over
the years.
Limit: Citizen of voting age
9. 18th Amendment
-Prohibition of Alcohol
• Illegal to make, sell, buy, or consume alcohol in America
• Led to organized crime (smuggling alcohol in)
During the 1800s,
women and other
reformers wanted to
completely rid the
U.S. of alcohol.
They got their wish
on January 16, 1920,
when the federal
government passed
the 18th Amendment,
prohibiting all use of
alcohol.
10. 19th Amendment
-Women’s right to vote
Also in 1920, women
gained the right to
vote in all state and
federal elections,
mostly because of
their help in
American society
during WWI.
Limit: citizen of
voting age
11. 20th Amendment
-Changes the beginning of Presidential and Congressional terms.
• “Lame Duck” amendment, says the President and the new Congress will be
inaugurated in January instead of March
Prior to the 20th Amendment,
the President would be
elected in November, but he
would not officially take his
new office (be inaugurated)
until March. This meant that
the old President ruled with
no real power for a period of
4 months, while the new
President just waited to take
his job. The 20th Amendment
changed that, allowing the
President to be inaugurated
(officially take office) in
January rather than March.
12. 21st Amendment
-Repeals Prohibition
• Congress took back the 18th Amendment, and they said it was okay to
have alcohol again (too much crime)
During Prohibition, organized
crime rose to an all-time high as
criminals such as Al Capone would
smuggle alcohol into American
towns and cities.
Because Prohibition was not
accomplishing its goals, and
because it was causing more
problems than it was fixing, the
federal government repealed the
18th Amendment with the 21st
Amendment, making alcohol legal
again.
13. 22nd Amendment
-Establishes a two term limit for President
• The President can only be elected to two 4-year terms, or they can serve
a total of 10 years
Throughout the 1930s, American
citizens were in a Great
Depression. Franklin Roosevelt
helped the people through this
Depression with a plan he called
the New Deal. He also ushered the
U.S. into WWII after the attack on
Pearl Harbor. Because of his
actions as President, he was
elected to the Presidency 4 times.
After his death in 1945, the federal
government passed the 22nd
Amendment, which limits the
President to two terms or a total of
10 years.
14. 23rd Amendment
-Gives residents of Washington D.C. the right to vote in national
elections
• Gives D.C. electoral votes
• Limit: D.C. has no voting members in Congress
15. 24th Amendment
-Abolishes the use of poll taxes in voting
• Cannot charge people money to vote in elections (South)
The 24th Amendment was
passed during the Civil
Rights Movement, which
made it illegal for any state
to require voters to pay a
poll tax to vote.
Limit: Voter id laws
16. 25th Amendment
-Defines the succession of the office of President
• Establishes who becomes President if he dies
17. 26th Amendment
-Lowers the voting age to 18 years old.
After being drafted to fight
in the Vietnam War, the
federal government
extended the right to vote to
18-year-olds.
Limit: citizen, be at least 18
18. 27th Amendment
-Places limits on Congressional pay raises until the beginning of the next
term.
• Congress can vote themselves a raise, but they do not get it until the
next Congress starts.
