How many amendments does the Constitution have?

The Constitution has 27 amendments, ratified between 1791 and 1992. The first ten, the Bill of Rights, were proposed by the First Congress in 1789 and ratified together on December 15, 1791. They cover religion, speech, press, assembly, the right to bear arms, search and seizure, due process, jury trials, cruel and unusual punishment, unenumerated rights, and powers reserved to the states.

The Eleventh Amendment in 1795 limited federal court suits against states. The Twelfth Amendment in 1804 reformed the Electoral College after the disputed 1800 election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

The Reconstruction Amendments followed the Civil War: the Thirteenth in 1865 abolished slavery, the Fourteenth in 1868 guaranteed citizenship, due process, and equal protection of the laws to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and the Fifteenth in 1870 barred denial of the vote based on race.

The Sixteenth in 1913 authorized the federal income tax. The Seventeenth in 1913 provided for direct election of senators by voters rather than state legislatures. The Eighteenth in 1919 imposed Prohibition, which the Twenty-First repealed in 1933. The Nineteenth in 1920 guaranteed women the right to vote.

The Twentieth in 1933 changed the start dates of presidential and congressional terms. The Twenty-Second in 1951 limited presidents to two terms after Franklin Roosevelt's four. The Twenty-Third in 1961 gave residents of Washington, D.C. electoral votes. The Twenty-Fourth in 1964 abolished poll taxes in federal elections. The Twenty-Fifth in 1967 set rules for presidential succession and disability. The Twenty-Sixth in 1971 lowered the voting age to 18. The Twenty-Seventh, originally proposed by James Madison in 1789, was finally ratified in 1992 and delays any congressional pay raise until after the next House election.

Six amendments have cleared Congress but failed ratification, including the Equal Rights Amendment for women, first proposed in 1923 and approved by Congress in 1972. Out of more than 11,000 amendments proposed in Congress since 1789, only 33 have been sent to the states, and only 27 have become part of the Constitution. That ratio shows how high the bar is.