The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States, drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and taking effect on 4 March 1789, when it superseded the Articles of Confederation as the country's founding governing document. Originally comprising seven articles, it establishes the structure of the federal government, dividing power among a legislative Congress, an executive presidency and a judiciary headed by the Supreme Court, and it sets out the relationship between the federal government and the individual states. The Constitution has since been amended twenty-seven times, beginning with the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791, and it remains the oldest still-functioning written national constitution in continuous use in the world.
Facts
Document Type Creation Year Origin PlacePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States 1 Current LocationNational Archives Building, Washington, D.C., displayed in the Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom. 1 Original Language Classification
Medium or Support Document Type
Document Type (category) FAQs
How can the United States Constitution be amended?
Two thirds of Congress or of the state legislatures can propose an amendment and three fourths of the states must ratify it.
Article V of the Constitution sets out two ways to propose amendments. Congress may propose them whenever two thirds of both houses deem it necessary, or Congress shall call a convention for proposing amendments on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the states. In either case an amendment becomes valid as part of the Constitution when it is ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the states or by conventions in three fourths of them.
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Source Wikipedia: Constitution of the United States
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1. Wikipedia: Constitution of the United States
WikipediaLead section
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America.
Image caption, Judicial review section
The National Archives' Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, D.C. where, in-between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original Bill of Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other American founding documents are publicly exhibited.
- Wikipedia lead paragraph, document type/medium described (w-bbfill-history3-0927)
In Era: The Early Modern Period, lead paragraph and infobox, date
The drafting of the Constitution by many of the nation's Founding Fathers, often referred to as its framing, was completed at the Constitutional Convention, which assembled at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between May 25 and September 17, 1787.
In Group: Constitutions, Charters and Statutes of the Age of Revolution and Napoleon, 1700 to 1814, Lead
It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789.
View the Source Wikidata: United States Constitution
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