The United States Constitution is the founding charter of the United States federal government, establishing its structure and powers and dividing authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches. It was signed by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on 17 September 1787 and later ratified by the states.
Facts
Key ProvisionEstablishes a federal government of three separated branches, legislative, executive and judicial, each holding checks on the powers of the others, distributes enumerated federal powers alongside powers reserved to the states, and sets out, in Article V, the procedure by which the document itself can be amended; the seven original articles were supplemented in 1791 by the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights and by later amendments extending and restricting government power. 2 Dates
SignedSigned by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. AdoptedRatification by the ninth state, New Hampshire, satisfied Article VII's threshold; government under the Constitution began 4 March 1789. Classification
Document Type Original Language FAQs
What is the difference between the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments, added two years after ratification.
The Constitution, signed 17 September 1787 and in effect from 1789, establishes the structure of the federal government. It said little about individual rights, which Anti-Federalist critics made a condition of broader acceptance during the ratification debates. James Madison drafted twelve amendments in the First Congress; ten were ratified on 15 December 1791 as the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing rights such as freedom of speech and religion, due process, and protection against unreasonable search and seizure.
Connections
Advocated By
The Federalist Party grew from the coalition that campaigned for ratification of the United States Constitution, argued for in The Federalist Papers.
Associated With
The framers created the presidency in the Constitutional Convention of 1787-88.
Source President, Government Official (Britannica)
The 22nd Amendment is part of the US Constitution.
Source Twenty-Second Amendment (National Constitution Center)
Drafted By
Source James Madison (Britannica)
Influenced
Source A More Perfect Union (National Archives)
Article V's formal, multi-step amendment procedure is the founding model for codified constitutional amendment processes.
Source A More Perfect Union (National Archives)
Source A More Perfect Union (National Archives)
The 1787 Constitution's separately elected, fixed term executive is the founding model political scientists call presidentialism.
Source President, Government Official (Britannica)
Source A More Perfect Union (National Archives)
Article III of the United States Constitution established the Supreme Court.
Influenced By
The Constitutional Convention's Great Compromise split Congress into a House apportioned by population and a Senate of equal state representation.
Source Bicameral System (Britannica)
Source Federalist Papers (Britannica)
Source Montesquieu (Britannica)
Source Montesquieu (Britannica)
Shaped
Signed By
Presided over the Constitutional Convention as its elected president and was among the signers.
Source U.S. Constitution Signed and Ratified (HISTORY)
Sources
1. U.S. Constitution Signed and Ratified (HISTORY)
A&E Television Networks (HISTORY)Signed By: George Washington, U.S. Constitution signed sectionQuote, Signed By: George Washington, U.S. Constitution signed section
Revolutionary War hero George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was elected convention president.
2. A More Perfect Union (National Archives)
U.S. National ArchivesDocument type, description
The United States Constitution is the founding charter of the United States federal government, establishing its structure and powers and dividing authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches.
- Influenced: Checks and Balances
- Influenced: Federalism
- Influenced: Separation of Powers
- Influenced: Constitutional Amendment
View the Source 3. Wikidata: United States Constitution
- Wikidata Q11698, class allow-list match, case-insensitive label variant (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/resolve_ci.ps1)
- Wikidata Q11698 via P407 (w-bbfill-smallsix2-0926/propfill_varchar.ps1)
View the SourceBill of Rights Ratified: December 15, 1791 (Gilder Lehrman Institute)
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American HistoryEncompasses: United States Bill of RightsView the Source U.S. National Archives: Constitution of the United States: A Transcription
U.S. National ArchivesIn Group: Constitutions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Page textQuote, In Group: Constitutions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Page text
done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, G°. Washington Presidt and deputy from Virginia Delaware Geo: Read Gunning Bedford jun John Dickinson Richard Bassett Jaco: Broom Maryland James McHenry Dan of St Thos.
President, Government Official (Britannica)
Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Description
American constitutional scholarship remains divided on how the Constitution's text should be read over time. Originalists (associated with Justice Antonin Scalia and jurist Robert Bork, reacting against the Warren Court) hold that provisions carry the meaning their words held when ratified, and that changes belong to the amendment process, not judicial reinterpretation. Living-constitutionalists hold that the Constitution's broad phrases were deliberately left open and are properly read against changing social conditions. The two schools produce genuinely different outcomes on issues from civil rights to privacy to the scope of federal power, and neither commands a scholarly consensus.
A dissenting reading, from Originalist and living-constitutionalist interpretive schoolsOriginalism (Britannica), Encyclopaedia Britannica
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