What are the 4 most important amendments?

Asked by: Prof. Terrell Wehner  |  Last update: September 13, 2025
Score: 4.1/5 (61 votes)

First Amendment: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly. Second Amendment: the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Third Amendment: restricts housing soldiers in private homes. Fourth Amendment: protects against unreasonable search and seizure.

What are the top 5 important amendments?

  • The First Amendment: Religious Freedom, and Freedom to Speak, Print, Assemble, and Petition. ...
  • The Second Amendment: The Right to Bear Arms. ...
  • The Third Amendment: Quartering Troops. ...
  • The Fourth Amendment: Search and Seizure. ...
  • The Fifth Amendment: Rights of Persons. ...
  • The Sixth Amendment: Rights of the Accused.

What do the 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, and 14th amendments do?

These amendments include the fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth, and the fourteenth amendments. Their purpose is meant to ensure that people are treated fairly if suspected or arrested for crimes.

What is the 4 amendment in simple terms?

The Constitution, through the Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. The Fourth Amendment, however, is not a guarantee against all searches and seizures, but only those that are deemed unreasonable under the law.

What are the 16-17, 18 and 19 amendments known as?

A progressive amendment is a law passed at the federal level and is considered an amendment to the Constitution. There were multiple progressive amendments. The 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th amendments were progressive amendments passed under Presidents Taft and Wilson.

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What are the 10 First amendments?

Ratified December 15, 1791.
  • Amendment I. Freedoms, Petitions, Assembly. ...
  • Amendment II. Right to bear arms. ...
  • Amendment III. Quartering of soldiers. ...
  • Amendment IV. Search and arrest. ...
  • Amendment V. Rights in criminal cases. ...
  • Amendment VI. Right to a fair trial. ...
  • Amendment VII. Rights in civil cases. ...
  • Amendment VIII. Bail, fines, punishment.

What did the 19th Amendment do?

Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920, the 19th amendment granted women the right to vote. The 19th amendment legally guarantees American women the right to vote. Achieving this milestone required a lengthy and difficult struggle—victory took decades of agitation and protest.

What are the 4 First Amendment rights?

Apply landmark Supreme Court cases to contemporary scenarios related to the five pillars of the First Amendment and your rights to freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition.

Why is Amendment 5 important?

The Fifth Amendment's protection from self-incrimination allows citizens to not have to testify in court if they feel that it might incriminate themselves. In modern times, this protection has been most famously represented in the 1966 Supreme Court ruling Miranda v. Arizona.

What is Amendment 7?

Amendment Seven to the Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791. It protects the right for citizens to have a jury trial in federal courts with civil cases where the claim exceeds a certain dollar value. It also prohibits judges in these trials from overruling facts revealed by the jury.

What are the 10 civil rights?

Examples of civil rights include the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, the right to government services, the right to a public education, the right to gainful employment, the right to housing, the right to use public facilities, freedom of religion.

Why are amendments 4 8 important?

These amendments help the accused to understand the options they have to fight against their crime legally, knowing all of their rights, so they aren't mistreated by any means and are given full resources in order to help with their trial and protect them from unlawful imprisonment and torture.

Which amendment ended slavery?

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)

Why is the 1st amendment important?

Amendment One to the Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791. It is most commonly recognized for its protection of the freedom of speech, religion, the press, and making complaints and requests to the government.

What is the rule of the law?

Rule of law is a principle under which all persons, institutions, and entities are accountable to laws that are: Publicly promulgated. Equally enforced. Independently adjudicated. And consistent with international human rights principles.

Why is Amendment 6 important?

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who your accusers are and the nature of the charges and evidence against you.

What is a real life example of the 5th Amendment?

The Court has overturned laws that have infringed on people's rights due to the due process clause. For example, the Court, in Roe v. Wade, overturned legislation banning abortion because such laws violated a person's 5th Amendment rights of due process.

What does the 10th Amendment do?

Amendment Ten to the Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791. It makes clear that any powers that are not specifically given to the federal government, nor withheld from the states, are reserved to those respective states, or to the people at large.

What are the 4 freedom rights?

Freedom of Speech, by Booth Tarkington (February 20, 1943). Freedom of Worship, by Will Durant (February 27, 1943). Freedom from Want, by Carlos Bulosan (March 6, 1943). Freedom from Fear, by Stephen Vincent Benét (March 13, 1943; the date of Benét's death).

What does the 2nd amendment say?

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

What is the 4th amendment?

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things ...

What is the 21st Amendment?

Constitutional Amendments – Amendment 21 – “Repeal of Prohibition” Amendment Twenty-one to the Constitution was ratified on December 5, 1933. It repealed the previous Eighteenth Amendment which had established a nationwide ban on the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol.

What does the 20th Amendment say?

If there is no president-elect before Inauguration Day, the Twentieth Amendment allows the vice president-elect to act in that role until a new one can be appointed by Congress.

What does the 23rd Amendment say?

Amendment Twenty-three to the Constitution was ratified on March 29, 1961. It gives electors to the District of Columbia – the capital city of the United States – so that it may participate in presidential elections.