The United States Constitution

United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

 and its amendments comprise hundreds of clause

Clause

In grammar, a clause is the smallest grammatical unit that can express a complete proposition. In some languages it may be a pair or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in other languages in certain clauses the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase,...

s which outline the functioning of the United States Federal Government and affect how the United States federal court system interprets the law. When a particular clause becomes an important or contentious issue of law, it is given a name for ease of reference.

List of Clauses

• Admissions Clause
• Advice and Consent Clause
• Appointments Clause
  Appointments Clause
  Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Appointments Clause, empowers the President of the United States to appoint certain public officials with the "advice and consent" of the U.S. Senate...
  
  
• Arisings Clause
• Commerce Clause
  Commerce Clause
  The Commerce Clause is an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution . The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." Courts and commentators have tended to...
  
  
• Compact Clause
• Confrontation Clause
  Confrontation Clause
  The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him." Generally, the right is to have a face-to-face confrontation with witnesses who are...
  
  
• Contract Clause
  Contract Clause
  The Contract Clause appears in the United States Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 1. It states:The Contract Clause prohibits states from enacting any law that retroactively impairs contract rights...
  
  
• Disestablishment Clause
• Elastic Clause
• Emoluments Clause
• Enclave Clause
• Establishment Clause
• Exceptions Clause
• Export Clause
• Free Exercise Clause
• Fugitive Slave Clause
  Fugitive Slave Clause
  The Fugitive Slave Clause is the name given to a provision in Article Four of the United States Constitution, Section 2, Clause 3, that requires that slaves that escaped to another state be returned to the owner in the state from which they escaped...
  
  
• Full Faith and Credit Clause
  Full Faith and Credit Clause
  The Full Faith and Credit Clause is the familiar name used to refer to Article IV, Section 1 of the United States Constitution, which addresses the duties that states within the United States have to respect the "public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state." According to...
  
  
• General Welfare Clause
  General Welfare clause
  A General Welfare clause is a section that appeared in many constitutions, as well as in some charters and statutes, which provides that the governing body empowered by the document may enact laws to promote the general welfare of the people...
  
  
• Implied Powers Clause
• Ineligibility Clause
  Ineligibility Clause
  The Ineligibility Clause, one of the two clauses often called the Emoluments Clause, and sometimes also referred to as the Incompatibility Clause or the Sinecure Clause, is found in Article 1, Section 6, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution...
  
  
• Interstate Commerce Clause
• Just Compensation Clause
• Necessary and Proper Clause
• Origination Clause
• Presentment Clause
  Presentment Clause
  The Presentment Clause of the United States Constitution outlines federal legislative procedure by which bills originating in Congress become federal law in the United States.-Text:...
  
  
• Qualifications Clause
• Republican Form Clause
• Search and Seizure Clause
• Speedy Trial Clause
• Supremacy Clause
  Supremacy Clause
  Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, known as the Supremacy Clause, establishes the U.S. Constitution, U.S. Treaties, and Federal Statutes as "the supreme law of the land." The text decrees these to be the highest form of law in the U.S...
  
  
• Suspension Clause
• Sweeping Clause
• Take Care Clause
• Takings Clause
• Treaty Clause
  Treaty Clause
  Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, includes the Treaty Clause, which empowers the President of the United States to propose and chiefly negotiate agreements between the United States and other countries, which become treaties between the United States and other...