Plain Constitution

Every article and all 27 amendments — original wording, plus what it actually means.

About the summaries: the text in serif is the Constitution exactly as written, which is public record. The blue box above each one is a plain-language explanation written for this page — it is a paraphrase to help you follow the original, not a legal authority. Courts have spent two centuries arguing over what several of these clauses mean, and a one-paragraph summary cannot settle any of that. Read the original alongside it, and if something affects you personally, talk to a lawyer rather than a website. A few passages, marked where they appear, were superseded by later amendments but remain in the document as ratified.