Description

The Constitution of the United States isthesupreme law of the United States of America. TheConstitutionoriginally consisted of seven Articles. The first threeArticlesembody the doctrine of the separation of powers, wherebythefederal government is divided into three branches: thelegislature,consisting of the bicameral Congress; the executive,consisting ofthe President; and the judiciary, consisting of theSupreme Courtand other federal courts. The fourth and sixthArticles frame thedoctrine of federalism, describing therelationship between Stateand State, and between the several Statesand the federalgovernment. The fifth Article provides the procedurefor amendingthe Constitution. The seventh Article provides theprocedure forratifying the Constitution.

The Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, bytheConstitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,andratified by conventions in eleven States. It went into effectonMarch 4, 1789.

Since the Constitution was adopted, it has beenamendedtwenty-seven times. The first ten of amendments (along withtwoothers that were not ratified at the time) were proposedbyCongress on September 25, 1789, and were ratified by thenecessarythree-fourths of the States on December 15, 1791. Thesefirst tenamendments are known as the Bill of Rights.

The Constitution is interpreted, supplemented, and implementedbya large body of constitutional law. The Constitution of theUnitedStates was the first constitution of its kind, and hasinfluencedthe constitutions of many other nations.