US Constitution Trivia
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99 free US Constitution trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free US Constitution trivia questions with answers. These Constitution trivia questions and answers cover the whole story of America's founding document: the sweltering, secret 1787 convention in Philadelphia, the Great Compromise and the Three-fifths Compromise, the 39 men who signed, the ratification fight and the Federalist Papers, then the Bill of Rights and every notable amendment from the Twelfth to the Twenty-seventh. Early questions suit students and Constitution Day classroom quizzes: how many articles, what the Preamble begins with, which amendment gave women the vote. Later ones reward real buffs: who was paid $30 to write the parchment, which amendment took 202 years to ratify, and which state refused to send delegates. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and the text of the Constitution itself before publishing.
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Q 01In which city did the Constitutional Convention meet in 1787?
Philadelphia
Philadelphia's convention voted to keep its debates secret, and delegates kept the windows shut despite the sweltering summer heat.
Q 02Who presided over the 1787 Constitutional Convention?
George Washington
George Washington joined the debates only once, on the final day, successfully urging one House seat per 30,000 inhabitants instead of 40,000.
Q 03Which delegate, at 81, was the oldest to sign the Constitution?
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin backed the document despite his own doubts, and 39 of the convention's 55 delegates went on to sign it.
Q 04Which state refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention?
Rhode Island
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.
Q 05What document did the Constitution replace as the nation's frame of government on March 4, 1789?
The Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation denied Congress any power to tax, so it could only ask the states for money.
Q 06With which three words does the Preamble begin?
We the People
We the People once led into a list of the states, cut because no one knew which states would actually ratify.
Q 07Which Pennsylvania delegate is credited as primary author of the Preamble and the final wording?
Gouverneur Morris
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.
Q 08Which famous orator declined a seat at the 1787 convention, then led his state's fight against ratification?
Patrick Henry
Patrick Henry declined because he feared a strong federal government, and his long speeches at the ratifying convention still failed to stop it.
Q 09Which state was the first to ratify the Constitution, in December 1787?
Delaware
Delaware ratified on December 7, 1787, which is why it still calls itself 'The First State'.
Q 10Which state became the ninth to ratify, putting the Constitution into effect?
New Hampshire
New Hampshire first put off a decision in February 1788, then ratified on June 21, making nine states.
Q 11Under what shared pen name were The Federalist essays written?
Publius
Publius was the essays' shared pen name, while critics of the Constitution fought it in New York papers as 'Cato' and 'Brutus'.
Q 12Which Federalist author became the first Chief Justice?
John Jay
John Jay wrote just five of the essays, and while still Chief Justice he negotiated the 1794 Jay Treaty with Britain.
Q 13Which proposal, presented by Edmund Randolph on May 29, 1787, became the basis of the new government?
The Virginia Plan
The Virginia Plan wanted both houses of Congress weighted by population, which the small states fought until the Great Compromise.
Q 21Which amendment reserves powers not delegated to the United States to the states or to the people?
Tenth
The Tenth Amendment was added to reassure Anti-Federalists, who feared the new Constitution would swallow up the states' powers.
Q 22Which ruling denying Black Americans citizenship did an 1868 amendment overrule?
Dred Scott
Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) held that Black Americans could not be citizens, and the ruling pushed the nation closer to civil war.
Q 23Who missed the 1787 convention while minister to France?
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson kept up with the convention by letter from Paris and pressed for a bill of rights to be added.
Q 14The Great Compromise gave every state how many senators, regardless of population?
Two
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.
Q 15The Three-Fifths Compromise boosted which region's power in the House of Representatives?
The South
The South gained House seats and electoral votes by counting three-fifths of its enslaved people toward its population.
Q 16Which delegate alone signed the Constitution for New York?
Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton signed alone because his fellow New York delegates, Robert Yates and John Lansing Jr., had already left the convention.
Q 17Which constitutional requirement keeps Arnold Schwarzenegger from ever becoming president?
Natural-born citizenship
Natural-born citizenship bars Austrian-born Schwarzenegger, though the framers let anyone already a citizen when the Constitution was adopted qualify.
Q 18Article Six forbids which kind of requirement as a qualification for any federal office?
A religious test
A religious test is banned, and officials may affirm instead of swearing, so no one has to say 'so help me God'.
Q 19Article Three says federal judges hold office during what?
Good behaviour
Good behaviour is read as life tenure, so federal judges serve until they die, resign or are impeached and removed.
Q 20Besides witness testimony to the same overt act, what else can convict someone of treason under the Constitution?
A confession in open court
A confession in open court is the only alternative, and the Constitution limits treason to waging war on the US or aiding its enemies.
Q 24When first adopted, the Bill of Rights limited the powers of which government?
The U.S. 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.
Q 25The Third Amendment restricts the government from doing what?
Quartering soldiers in private homes
Quartering soldiers in private homes: the amendment answered Britain's Quartering Acts and has never been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision.
Q 26Which 1803 Supreme Court case established the power of judicial review?
Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison was a unanimous 4–0 ruling that struck down section 13 of the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Q 27Which vice-presidential candidate tied his own running mate in 1800, prompting the Twelfth Amendment?
Burr
Aaron Burr and his running mate tied in electoral votes, and the House needed 36 ballots to break the deadlock.
Q 28Which amendment abolished slavery in 1865?
Thirteenth
The Thirteenth Amendment was only symbolically ratified by Mississippi in 1995, 130 years after it took effect.
Q 29Which amendment, adopted in 1868, contains the Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses?
Fourteenth
The Fourteenth Amendment's principal framer was Representative John Bingham, and it was ratified in 1868.
Q 30The Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 bars denying the vote on account of race, colour, or what?
Previous condition of servitude
Previous condition of servitude shielded millions of freed slaves, and the amendment's ratification in 1870 completed the three Reconstruction Amendments.