US Constitution
America's founding document
The US Constitution is the foundational legal document of the United States, ratified in 1788, establishing the structure of the federal government and guaranteeing certain rights.
It divides power among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
The First Amendment to the Constitution protects free speech.
Constitutional describes anything relating to or permitted by it: a constitutional right, constitutional law.
- We the PeopleOpening of the Constitution
- founding documentEstablishing text of origin
- Founding FathersRevolutionary-era American statesmen
- Supreme Court rulingsBinding interpretations from apex judiciary
- Bill of RightsInitial constitutional amendments guaranteeing freedoms
First Amendment · freedom of speech · Second Amendment · Federalist Papers · original intent · Fourteenth Amendment · equal protection · George Washington · James Madison · separation of powers · checks and balances · ratification · amendment process · Federalism · Federalism
- US HistoryAmerican Revolution, US history, Civil War, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln
- 1790sFrench Revolution, Reign of Terror, Robespierre, guillotine, Jacobins
- 18th Century WorksCandide, Gulliver's Travels, Pamela, Tom Jones, Dangerous Liaisons
US Constitutionroyal decree
Official order from sovereign
absolute monarchy · divine right of kings · tyranny · despotism · rule by decree
US Constitutiontotalitarianism
State controls everything absolutely
fascism · Nazism · Stalinism · authoritarianism · communism
US Constitutionunwritten constitution
Governance by convention, not document
royal edict · fiat · ukase
constitution, constitutional, constitutionally, unconstitutional, unconstitutionally, constitutionalism, constitutionalist, constitute, constituted