Get out your amendments work

We will quickly go over the rest of the Amendments then start on the court cases.

11th Amendment

-Places limits on suits against states

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

25th Amendment

-Defines the succession of the office of President

• Establishes who becomes President if he dies

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

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.