How Many Articles Are in the Constitution? All 7 Explained

The U.S. Constitution has seven articles. Delegates signed the document on September 17, 1787, in Philadelphia, and those seven articles have been the structural core of American government ever since.¹ The 27 amendments added over the past two centuries carry the same legal force, but they are separate additions, not new articles. The count has never changed.²

The Seven Articles at a Glance

The articles run in a deliberate order. The first three build the three branches of the federal government. The next three handle relationships and rules. The last one put the whole thing into effect.

Article I creates Congress and its powers.
Article II creates the presidency.
Article III creates the federal courts.
Article IV governs how the states deal with each other and with Washington.
Article V sets the process for amending the Constitution.
Article VI declares the Constitution the supreme law of the land.
Article VII established how the Constitution would be ratified.

Across all seven, the document contains 24 sections. Article I alone has ten of them, while Articles V, VI, and VII each have just one.³

Article I: Congress and Federal Lawmaking

Article I is the longest part of the original Constitution. It creates a two-chamber Congress made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and it gives that body the power to make federal law.⁴

Section 8 is the workhorse. It lists the specific powers of Congress: taxing and borrowing, regulating interstate and foreign commerce, coining money, declaring war, raising armies and a navy, establishing post offices, and granting patents and copyrights.⁵ It closes with the Necessary and Proper Clause, which lets Congress pass laws reasonably needed to carry out its listed powers. That clause is not itself a source of new authority; it confirms Congress can choose appropriate methods for doing what the Constitution already authorizes.⁶

Article II: The Presidency

Article II places executive power in a single president, elected with a vice president to a four-year term through the Electoral College. Each state appoints a number of electors equal to its total congressional delegation, and those electors cast the actual votes for president.⁷

The article names the president commander in chief of the armed forces and grants the power to make treaties with two-thirds approval of the Senate, to appoint ambassadors, federal judges, and other officers with Senate confirmation, and to grant pardons for federal offenses. Article II also sets up impeachment. The president, vice president, and all civil officers can be removed for treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The House brings the charges, and the Senate conducts the trial.⁷

Article III: The Federal Courts

Article III creates the Supreme Court and authorizes Congress to establish lower federal courts. Federal judges hold their positions “during good behaviour,” which in practice means life tenure unless they resign, retire, or are impeached, and their salaries cannot be reduced while they serve.⁸

The article defines what federal courts can hear: cases arising under the Constitution or federal law, disputes between states, cases involving ambassadors, and admiralty matters, among others. It also contains the Constitution’s only definition of a specific crime. Treason consists of levying war against the United States or aiding its enemies, and conviction requires either a confession in open court or the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act.⁸

One point worth flagging: Article III does not explicitly grant courts the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court claimed that authority in 1803 in Marbury v. Madison, reasoning that because Article VI makes the Constitution the supreme law of the land, any conflicting statute cannot stand.⁹

Article IV: The States

Article IV handles how the states relate to each other and to the federal government. Its Full Faith and Credit Clause requires every state to honor the official acts, public records, and court judgments of every other state.¹⁰ Without it, a marriage certificate or a court judgment could lose its meaning the moment someone crossed a state line.

The article also covers the admission of new states and requires that a person charged with a crime in one state who flees to another be returned to face the charges.¹¹ Its Guarantee Clause obligates the federal government to ensure every state maintains a republican form of government and to protect each state against invasion and domestic insurrection.¹²

Article V: How the Constitution Gets Changed

Article V is why the document has survived without being scrapped and rewritten. It provides two paths for proposing an amendment: a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, or a national convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures. Once proposed, an amendment must be ratified by three-fourths of the states, either through their legislatures or through special state conventions.¹³ Every successful amendment so far has come through Congress. The convention route has never been used.

The three-fourths threshold is deliberately steep. Today it means 38 of the 50 states must agree.¹⁴ Out of more than 11,000 amendments proposed throughout history, only 27 have made it in.¹⁵

Article VI: Supreme Law of the Land

Article VI makes three declarations. First, the new government agreed to honor all debts incurred under the Articles of Confederation. Second, its Supremacy Clause makes the Constitution, federal statutes made under it, and treaties the supreme law of the land, overriding any conflicting state law. Third, all federal and state officials must take an oath to support the Constitution, and no religious test can ever be required for holding public office.¹⁶ That prohibition on religious tests was unusual for the period, and it applies at every level of government.

Article VII: Getting the Constitution Off the Ground

Article VII answered the practical question of when the Constitution would take effect. Ratification by nine of the original thirteen states, through special conventions rather than the existing state legislatures, was required before the new government could begin operating.¹⁷ New Hampshire became that ninth state on June 21, 1788, officially putting the Constitution into force for the states that had ratified.¹⁸ The rest joined afterward, with Rhode Island holding out until 1790.

Why Amendments Don’t Count as Articles

Because printed copies of the Constitution place the amendments right after Article VII, people sometimes assume the amendments are additional articles. They aren’t. The seven articles are the original framework adopted in 1788. The 27 amendments are modifications added on top of that framework, each ratified through the Article V process.²

The first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791. They protect individual freedoms that the original articles largely left unaddressed: freedom of speech, religion, and the press; the right to bear arms; protections against unreasonable searches; the right to remain silent and to due process; the right to a speedy public trial; and a prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, among others.¹⁹ Later amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection under the law, and extended voting rights.

However many amendments are added in the future, the structural answer stays the same. Seven articles, signed in Philadelphia in 1787.³

1
Library of Congress. Today in History – September 17
2
National Archives. The Constitution of the United States: A Transcription
3
United States Senate. Constitution of the United States
4
Congress.gov. Constitution Annotated – Article I Legislative Branch
5
Congress.gov. Article I Section 8 – Constitution Annotated
6
Congress.gov. Overview of Necessary and Proper Clause
7
Legal Information Institute. U.S. Constitution Article II
8
Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Article III
9
United States Courts. About the Supreme Court
10
Congress.gov. Overview of Full Faith and Credit Clause
11
Legal Information Institute. Overview of Extradition (Interstate Rendition) Clause
12
Constitution Annotated. Historical Background on Guarantee of Republican Form of Government
13
Congress.gov. Article V – Amending the Constitution
14
National Archives. Constitutional Amendment Process
15
National Archives. Amending America
16
Congress.gov. Constitution of the United States – Article VI
17
Congress.gov. Article VII – Ratification
18
Yale Law School. Ratification of the Constitution by the State of New Hampshire
19
National Archives. The Bill of Rights: What Does it Say?