The Constitution can be changed — but only 27 times in more than two centuries has it been. Here is each amendment in full, with a plain-language explanation.
When the Constitution was signed in 1787 it contained almost no list of individual rights. Critics warned that a government without such guarantees could trample the people it was meant to serve.
To win ratification, supporters promised to add them. In 1789 James Madison shepherded a set of amendments through the first Congress, and by December 15, 1791 the states had ratified ten of them — the Bill of Rights. The seventeen that followed, ratified between 1795 and 1992, expanded who counts as a citizen, who can vote, and how power is held to account.