constitution

(noun)

The formal or informal system of primary principles and laws that regulates a government or other institutions.

Related Terms

Examples of constitution in the following topics:

  • The Constitution of 1790

  • Napoleon's Constitution

  • The Meiji Constitution

  • The 1947 Japanese Constitution

  • Article VI

    • Article Six of the United States Constitution establishes the Constitution and the laws and treaties of the United States made in accordance with it as the supreme law of the land.
    • All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under this Constitution, as under the Confederation.
    • This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
    • The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

  • The State Constitutions

    • In the United States, each state has its own constitution.
    • Many state constitutions, unlike the federal constitution, also begin with an invocation of God.
    • Some states allow amendments to the Constitution by initiative and many states have had several constitutions over the course of their history.
    • These constitutions are subject to congressional approval and oversight, which is not the case with state constitutions.
    • 1st Constitution of the Territory of American Samoa, 1 July 1967.

  • Amending the Constitution

    • To protect the Constitution from hasty alteration, the framers of the Constitution wrote Article V.
    • To protect the Constitution from hasty alteration, the framers wrote Article V .
    • This article specified how to amend the Constitution, showing that the Constitution could adapt to changing conditions with an understanding that such changes required deliberation.
    • This has never been used due to fears it would reopen the entire Constitution for revision.
    • Thus, Article V of the US Constitution, ratified in 1788, prohibited any constitutional amendments before 1808 which would affect the foreign slave trade, the tax on slave trade, or the direct taxation on provisions of the constitution.

  • [PF content: The Constitution of the United States]

  • [PF content: Interpreting the Constitution]

  • Article V

    • Article Five of the United States Constitution describes the process whereby the Constitution may be altered; altering the Constitution consists of proposing an amendment or amendments and subsequent ratification.
    • The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.