99 Fun Facts About US Constitution

In which city did the Constitutional Convention meet in 1787?

Philadelphia's convention voted to keep its debates secret, and delegates kept the windows shut despite the sweltering summer heat.

Who presided over the 1787 Constitutional Convention?

George Washington joined the debates only once, on the final day, successfully urging one House seat per 30,000 inhabitants instead of 40,000.

Which delegate, at 81, was the oldest to sign the Constitution?

Benjamin Franklin backed the document despite his own doubts, and 39 of the convention's 55 delegates went on to sign it.

Which state refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention?

Rhode Island boycotted the convention and held out until May 1790, ratifying only after threats to tax its exports as if it were a foreign country.

What document did the Constitution replace as the nation's frame of government on March 4, 1789?

The Articles of Confederation denied Congress any power to tax, so it could only ask the states for money.

With which three words does the Preamble begin?

We the People once led into a list of the states, cut because no one knew which states would actually ratify.

Which Pennsylvania delegate is credited as primary author of the Preamble and the final wording?

Gouverneur Morris did the drafting for the Committee of Style, chaired by William Samuel Johnson, and made the Preamble speak for the people of the United States.

Which famous orator declined a seat at the 1787 convention, then led his state's fight against ratification?

Patrick Henry declined because he feared a strong federal government, and his long speeches at the ratifying convention still failed to stop it.

Which state was the first to ratify the Constitution, in December 1787?

Delaware ratified on December 7, 1787, which is why it still calls itself 'The First State'.

Which state became the ninth to ratify, putting the Constitution into effect?

New Hampshire first put off a decision in February 1788, then ratified on June 21, making nine states.

Under what shared pen name were The Federalist essays written?

Publius was the essays' shared pen name, while critics of the Constitution fought it in New York papers as 'Cato' and 'Brutus'.

Which Federalist author became the first Chief Justice?

John Jay wrote just five of the essays, and while still Chief Justice he negotiated the 1794 Jay Treaty with Britain.

Which proposal, presented by Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787, became the basis of the new government?

The Virginia Plan wanted both houses of Congress weighted by population, which the small states fought until the Great Compromise.

The Great Compromise gave every state how many senators, regardless of population?

Two senators each: small states had demanded an equal voice, and the convention adopted the compromise on July 16, 1787, by a margin of one vote.

The Three-Fifths Compromise boosted which region's power in the House of Representatives?

The South gained House seats and electoral votes by counting three-fifths of its enslaved people toward its population.

Which delegate alone signed the Constitution for New York?

Alexander Hamilton signed alone because his fellow New York delegates, Robert Yates and John Lansing Jr., had already left the convention.

Which constitutional requirement keeps Arnold Schwarzenegger from ever becoming president?

Natural-born citizenship bars Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, though the framers let anyone already a citizen when the Constitution was adopted qualify.

Article Six forbids which kind of requirement as a qualification for any federal office?

A religious test is banned, and officials may affirm instead of swearing, so no one has to say 'so help me God'.

Article Three says federal judges hold office during what?

Good behaviour is read as life tenure, so federal judges serve until they die, resign or are impeached and removed.

Besides witness testimony to the same overt act, what else can convict someone of treason under the Constitution?

A confession in open court is the only alternative, and the Constitution limits treason to waging war on the US or aiding its enemies.

Which amendment reserves powers not delegated to the United States to the states or to the people?

The Tenth Amendment was added to reassure Anti-Federalists, who feared the new Constitution would swallow up the states' powers.

Which ruling denying Black Americans citizenship did an 1868 amendment overrule?

Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) held that Black Americans could not be citizens, and the ruling pushed the nation closer to civil war.

Who missed the 1787 convention while minister to France?

Thomas Jefferson kept up with the convention by letter from Paris and pressed for a bill of rights to be added.

When first adopted, the Bill of Rights limited the powers of which government?

The U.S. government alone was bound, and in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) the Supreme Court refused to extend the Bill of Rights to the states.

The Third Amendment restricts the government from doing what?

Quartering soldiers in private homes: the amendment answered Britain's Quartering Acts and has never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision.

Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the power of judicial review?

Marbury v. Madison was a unanimous 4–0 ruling that struck down section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789.

Which vice-presidential candidate tied his own running mate in 1800, prompting the Twelfth Amendment?

Aaron Burr and his running mate tied in electoral votes, and the House needed 36 ballots to break the deadlock.

Which amendment abolished slavery in 1865?

The Thirteenth Amendment was only symbolically ratified by Mississippi in 1995, 130 years after it took effect.

Which amendment, adopted in 1868, contains the Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses?

The Fourteenth Amendment's principal framer was Representative John Bingham, and it was ratified in 1868.

The Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 bars denying the vote on account of race, colour, or what?

Previous condition of servitude shielded millions of freed slaves, and the amendment's ratification in 1870 completed the three Reconstruction Amendments.

The Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913, gave Congress the power to levy what?

An income tax first funded the Civil War from 1861, and the 1913 amendment overturned an 1895 Supreme Court ruling against it.

Before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, who chose US senators?

State legislatures picked senators, though James Wilson had pushed at the 1787 convention for electing them by popular vote.

Which is the only amendment ever to have been repealed?

The Eighteenth Amendment launched Prohibition in 1920, a year after ratification, until the Twenty-first repealed it in 1933.

The Twenty-first Amendment is unique in being the only one approved by what method?

State ratifying conventions finished the job on December 5, 1933, ending Prohibition, and no other amendment has been ratified that way.

Which amendment gave women the vote nationwide, taking effect in August 1920?

The Nineteenth Amendment became law on August 18, 1920, when Tennessee narrowly became the 36th state to ratify.

The Twentieth Amendment moved presidential inaugurations from March 4 to which date?

January 20 replaced March 4 to shrink the long 'lame duck' period between an election and the start of the new term.

Which president's four election victories led to the Twenty-second Amendment's term limit?

Franklin D. Roosevelt broke with tradition by winning a third and a fourth term, and the limit was ratified in 1951.

The Twenty-third Amendment gave presidential electors to which place?

The District of Columbia gained electors in 1961, capped at no more than the least populous state, which gives it three.

What did the Twenty-fourth Amendment of 1964 outlaw in federal elections?

Poll taxes were barred in federal elections in 1964, and in 1966 the Supreme Court struck them down in state elections too.

Which vice president's 1973 resignation triggered the first use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment?

Spiro Agnew resigned after pleading no contest to tax evasion, and his replacement, Gerald Ford, became the only president never elected president or vice president.

The Twenty-sixth Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 largely because of the draft for which war?

The Vietnam War drafted young men who were too young to vote, and the states ratified the change in barely three months in 1971.

Which subject does the amendment proposed in 1789 but only ratified in 1992 cover?

Congressional pay changes can't take effect until after the next House election, and a student's 1982 paper, graded C, revived the amendment.

Which activist's STOP ERA campaign helped leave the Equal Rights Amendment three states short by its deadline?

Phyllis Schlafly argued the amendment would threaten housewives' Social Security benefits, and it stalled at 35 of the 38 states needed by its 1982 deadline.

Constitution Day, September 17, marks which 1787 event?

The signing came on the convention's final day, yet three delegates who had stayed to the end refused to add their names.

In which building did the Constitutional Convention assemble?

Independence Hall was then the Pennsylvania State House, where the Declaration of Independence had been adopted eleven years earlier.

Which 1786 meeting of just five states, called to ease trade barriers, urged a broader convention?

The Annapolis Convention drew delegates from only five states, too few to act, so it called for a wider meeting the next year.

Which state's 1786-87 uprising showed Congress could not fund a state in trouble?

Massachusetts crushed Shays' Rebellion with militia paid for by its merchants, because Congress could not finance troops.

Which clause of Article One is also called the Elastic Clause?

The Necessary and Proper Clause let the Supreme Court uphold the Second Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819.

Which rejected 1787 plan would have kept one vote per state in a single-house Congress?

The New Jersey Plan was voted down, yet its equal vote for every state survived in the Senate.

Which honours does the Constitution forbid both the federal government and every state to grant?

Titles of nobility are banned so firmly that officials also need the consent of Congress to accept one from any king, prince or foreign state.

Which fixture of every presidency since the first does the Constitution never explicitly establish?

The Cabinet grew out of a single clause that lets the president demand written opinions from the heads of the executive departments.

Which feature of the Supreme Court does the Constitution leave for Congress to set by ordinary law?

The number of justices began at six under the Judiciary Act of 1789 and has stood at nine since 1869.

Which document, not the Constitution, promises 'Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'?

The Declaration of Independence lists those three rights; the Constitution's own trio, in the Fifth Amendment, is 'life, liberty, or property'.

Which institution in the US capital has displayed the original Constitution since 1952?

The National Archives took delivery in an armoured Marine Corps carrier, escorted by two tanks, on the short drive from the Library of Congress.

Which presidential speech grew from Article Two's order to inform Congress 'from time to time'?

The State of the Union was sent in writing for more than a century, until Woodrow Wilson revived the spoken address in 1913.

Which 1970s children's TV series taught young Americans the Constitution's Preamble as a song?

Schoolhouse Rock made 'The Preamble' for its bicentennial run of civics cartoons, the same batch that produced 'I'm Just a Bill'.

Which future fourth president is known as the Father of the Constitution for helping to draft it?

James Madison drew up the plan the 1787 convention debated first, and two years later steered the Bill of Rights through Congress.

Which act of protest did the Supreme Court rule in 1989 was speech protected by the First Amendment?

Burning the American flag won protection by a single vote, 5–4; Congress replied with a Flag Protection Act, which the Court struck down a year later.

Which English document inspired the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process of law?

Magna Carta promised judgement only by 'the law of the land', wording that a statute of 1354 turned into 'due process of law'.

The Preamble says the Constitution was written to 'establish Justice' and 'insure domestic' what?

Tranquility is the third of six aims in that single sentence, which ends by securing 'the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity'.

The Senate's power to reject a president's nominees illustrates which principle of the Constitution?

Checks and balances were defended in Federalist No. 51 with the line 'Ambition must be made to counteract ambition'.

A witness who 'pleads the Fifth' is invoking the Fifth Amendment's protection against what?

Self-incrimination is barred by the clause saying no one 'shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself'.

The Eighth Amendment bans excessive bail, excessive fines and punishments described by which phrase?

Cruel and unusual was borrowed almost word for word from the English Bill of Rights, passed by Parliament a century earlier in 1689.

Which Fifth Amendment protection stops prosecutors retrying a defendant a jury has acquitted?

Double jeopardy rests on the amendment's promise that no one shall 'be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb' for the same offence.

Which doctrine, upheld by the Supreme Court in 1896, did Brown v. Board of Education strike down?

Separate but equal had let states segregate railway cars and classrooms for 58 years; the ruling that ended it in schools was unanimous, 9–0.

Which president, impeached by the House in 1868, survived his Senate trial by a single vote?

Andrew Johnson had defied Congress by removing his war secretary, Edwin Stanton; the 35–19 vote to convict fell one short of two-thirds.

Which power does Article One hand to Congress while flatly denying it to the individual states?

Coining money is on Section 10's list of things no state may do, beside making treaties and issuing paper money of its own.

How many amendments have been added to the Constitution, the most recent of them in 1992?

27 is all that survived: Congress has sent 33 amendments to the states, and six of them were never ratified.

The Second Amendment introduces the right to bear arms by referring to which 'well regulated' body?

A militia of armed citizens was meant to balance the standing army and navy that the new Congress had been empowered to raise.

The First Amendment protects religion, speech, the press, assembly and which fifth freedom?

The right to petition was tested from 1836, when the House adopted 'gag rules' that shelved every anti-slavery petition without debate.

Which part of the First Amendment did the Supreme Court use in 1962 to end official school prayers?

The Establishment Clause ruling struck down a prayer of just 22 words that state officials had written for schools to recite at the start of each day.

The Fourth Amendment says no search warrant may issue without which standard, backed by an oath?

Probable cause was the founders' answer to the general warrants that had let British customs officers search colonial houses at will.

Clarence Earl Gideon's pencilled appeal from a Florida prison won poor defendants the right to what?

A free lawyer became every felony defendant's due after the Court ruled 9–0 for Gideon, who had been forced to conduct his own defence at trial.

Which French thinker's The Spirit of Law inspired the Constitution's separation of powers?

Montesquieu argued that liberty survives only when making, enforcing and judging the law sit in different hands, a design the framers copied.

Alongside treason, which offence does the Constitution name outright as grounds for impeachment?

Bribery and treason are the only two grounds spelled out; what counts as a 'high crime' is left for the House to judge case by case.

Article Four of the Constitution guarantees every state in the country which form of government?

Republican government is promised but never defined, and the Supreme Court treats its enforcement as a matter for Congress, not judges.

A president can pardon only federal crimes, so who usually grants clemency for state offences?

The governor, or in some states a pardon board, handles those cases; Article Two covers only 'Offenses against the United States'.

Which safeguard does the Constitution allow to be suspended only during rebellion or invasion?

Habeas corpus was suspended by Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, days after a riot in Baltimore, in the opening weeks of the Civil War.

Which provision of Article Six binds the judges in every state, whatever their own state's laws say?

The Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, federal laws and treaties 'the supreme Law of the Land', so any state law that conflicts with them gives way.

Which president, appointed vice president in 1973, was never elected to either office?

Gerald Ford then named Nelson Rockefeller as his own deputy, so from late 1974 neither of the nation's top two officeholders had been elected.

Which chief justice, appointed in 1801, served a record 34 years at the head of the Supreme Court?

John Marshall had already been a congressman and secretary of state, making him one of the few Americans to hold high office in all three branches.

Which delegate who refused to sign the Constitution later lent his name to a salamander-shaped district?

Elbridge Gerry was in office when a state senate district drawn in 1812 was likened to a salamander in a newspaper cartoon, hence 'gerrymander'.

Which inert gas, which replaced helium, fills the sealed cases protecting the original Constitution?

Argon went into new airtight encasements after archivists spotted signs of deterioration in the helium-filled glass cases of the 1950s.

What name is given to an Electoral College member who breaks a pledge and backs another candidate?

A faithless elector can be reined in by state law: in 2020 the Supreme Court ruled that states may force electors to back their pledged candidate.

Which Article One provision was stretched in 1942 to cover wheat a farmer grew for his own use?

The Commerce Clause covers trade 'among the several States'; the Court reasoned that wheat fed to a farmer's own animals still affected the wider market.

Which kind of law, punishing acts that were legal when done, can neither Congress nor any state pass?

An ex post facto law is banned twice over in Article One: Section 9 ties the hands of Congress and Section 10 those of the states.

Although presidents command the armed forces, which power does the Constitution give Congress alone?

Declaring war formally last happened in June 1942, against Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania; every conflict since has been fought without one.

Which 1944 Supreme Court ruling upheld the wartime removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast?

Korematsu v. United States was finally disowned in 2018, when the Court called it 'gravely wrong the day it was decided'.

Which congressional leader, named in Article One, is not actually required to be a member of Congress?

The Speaker of the House has always been a sitting member in practice, but outsiders have received votes in several elections since 1997.

Which delegate, now a public university's namesake, refused to sign the Constitution without a bill of rights?

George Mason said he 'would sooner chop off his right hand' than sign the text as it stood, then went home to campaign against ratification.

Which former shoemaker, the only signer of all four great American state papers, brokered the Great Compromise?

Roger Sherman's deal gave every state the same weight in one chamber and seats by population in the other, winning over large and small states alike.

Which provision of Article Four obliges each state to honour the court judgments of every other state?

The Full Faith and Credit Clause is why a court judgment won in one state can still be enforced against a debtor who moves to another.

Which Supreme Court justice was impeached by the House in 1804 but acquitted by the Senate?

Samuel Chase kept his seat, and some historians see his acquittal as the precedent that shields federal judges from removal over politics.

In which building did the First Congress, the first elected under the Constitution, meet in 1789?

Federal Hall stood on Wall Street in Manhattan and was demolished in 1812; a later building on the same site is preserved as a memorial.

Which 1819 Supreme Court case declared that 'the power to tax involves the power to destroy'?

McCulloch v. Maryland also confirmed that Congress holds implied powers, such as chartering a bank, beyond those the Constitution spells out.

Article One lets Congress grant 'Letters of Marque and Reprisal', wartime licences once issued to whom?

Privateers were private ship owners licensed to attack and capture enemy vessels, with an admiralty court deciding whether each prize was theirs.

Which measure, sent to the states in 1861 but never ratified, would have shielded slavery from Congress?

The Corwin Amendment cleared Congress on the eve of Abraham Lincoln's inauguration, a last attempt to stop the slide into civil war.

Which vice president claimed the full presidency after William Henry Harrison died in office in 1841?

John Tyler took the presidential oath at once, a precedent every later successor followed, while opponents mocked him as 'His Accidency'.

Where was the original Constitution locked away for safekeeping during the Second World War?

Fort Knox's gold vault also sheltered a Gutenberg Bible and Lincoln's drafts of the Gettysburg Address until they were returned to Washington in 1944.