Skip to content

Learn / Constitution

The Constitution.

Read the words. See the structure. Understand what connects them.

Preamble · Seven Articles
Twenty-seven Amendments

Hover or focus a clause to bring it forward. Select it to open the reading notes.

Constitutional text

Amendment XXI · Section 3

1 selectable clause · PDF page 16

This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Notes supplied with the source text

Passed by Congress February 20, 1933. Ratified December 5, 933.

Source: the uploaded National Constitution Center edition. Historical wording and its bracket markers remain visible; later amendments and the reading notes explain changes.

Clause notes