The US Constitution & Amendments
by Constitutional Convention
Published June 21, 1788 · Added May 27, 2026 · 36 min listen
TL;DR
The United States Constitution is the supreme legal document that established the federal government, divided power among three branches, and defined the relationship between the states and the federal government. Ratified in 1788, it is one of the oldest written national constitutions still in active use anywhere in the world.
The 27 Amendments include the Bill of Rights (1791), the Civil War Amendments that abolished slavery and guaranteed equal protection, and later changes covering income tax, women's suffrage, presidential term limits, and the voting age. Reading the full text is shorter than most people expect — about an hour of audio — and makes a lot of modern political arguments much easier to follow.
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