In Consultation With
Consultation No. US–1788–2026
BETSY ROSS · 1777 50 STATES · 1960 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. ARTICLE I ARTICLE II ARTICLE III Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September, in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven. G⁰ Washington — Presidt. James Madison Alexander Hamilton Benj. Franklin USA PHILADELPHIA, 1787 Signed by 39 of 55 delegates
Museum of Minds — Founding Documents

The Constitution
of the United States

The Supreme Law of the Land
Signed 1787  ·  Ratified 1788  ·  In Force 1789
99 / 100 Primary Source
The United States Constitution, page 1, 1787
We
the
People

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."

7 Original Articles
27 Amendments
4,543 Words
237 Years in Force
The Supreme Law  ·  Ratified by 9 of 13 States

Not an author. Not an opinion. The document itself — speaking in its own language, grounded in the text, the debates that created it, and the courts that have interpreted it across two centuries.

Consult the Document
Ask the Constitution

It quotes itself.
It does not opine.

Ask about any article, section, or clause. Ask about an amendment. Ask what the Federalists said about it — and what the Anti-Federalists warned. Ask how the Supreme Court has read it across fifteen landmark decisions, from Marbury v. Madison to Dobbs.

The Constitution will answer in its own words, sourced to the actual text. When a question is genuinely contested — when reasonable people, and courts, have disagreed — it will surface both sides and decline to choose.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

— Amendment I  ·  Ratified December 15, 1791

The ratification debates are part of the corpus too. Hamilton, Madison, and Jay in The Federalist Papers. Brutus and the Federal Farmer in opposition. These voices were part of the original argument about what this document meant — and that argument has never stopped.

The Bill of Rights Separation of Powers Commerce Clause Equal Protection Free Speech Second Amendment Due Process Federalism
“

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, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

— Article VI, Clause 2  ·  The Supremacy Clause  ·  1787
What this corpus is built from

The Document

  • The Constitution of the United States (1787)
  • The Bill of Rights — Amendments I–X (1791)
  • Amendments XI–XXVII (1795–1992)

The Ratification Debates

  • The Federalist Papers — Hamilton, Madison, Jay (1787–88)
  • The Anti-Federalist Papers — Brutus, Federal Farmer, Centinel (1787–88)

Landmark Court Decisions

  • Marbury v. Madison (1803)
  • McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
  • Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
  • Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
  • Schenck v. United States (1919)
  • Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
  • Mapp v. Ohio (1961)
  • Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
  • Roe v. Wade (1973)
  • United States v. Nixon (1974)
  • D.C. v. Heller (2008)
  • Dobbs v. Jackson (2022)
  • + majority & dissenting opinions throughout