(Congress.gov)
The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (also known as Constitution Annotated) is a regularly updated resource which includes the text of the U.S. Constitution and provides a legal analysis and interpretation of the U.S.Constitution based on a comprehensive review of U.S. Supreme Court case law and, where relevant, historical practices that have defined the text of the Constitution. Provides links to cases online.
(Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
(National Archives and Records Administration)
(The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School)
Includes digital images of approximately 100 documents, with citations to the source books and materials.
(Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
Brief entry in online encyclopedia, Wex.
(Library of Congress)
(Law Library of Congress)
(Library of Congress)
More than 30 research guides are available under the topic "Primary Documents in American History." These guides focus on specific amendments to the U.S. Constitution (e.g., 13th, 14th, and 19th Amendments) as well as major federal laws, treaties, and U.S. Supreme Court cases.
(A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation)
(Congress.gov)
The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation (also known as Constitution Annotated) is a regularly updated resource that includes the text of the U.S. Constitution and provides a legal analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution based on a comprehensive review of U.S. Supreme Court case law and, where relevant, historical practices that have defined the text of the Constitution.
(govinfo)
This print or bound edition of the Constitution Annotated is published every ten years, with cumulative updates printed as a supplement insert every two years.
(govinfo)
This publication (H.R. Doc. No. 110-50 (2007) contains the text of the U.S. Constitution, including amendments and proposed amendments not ratified, a historical note, and an index.
(A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation)
"When Joseph Gales compiled the early debates and proceedings of Congress for publication in 1834 he chose to introduce the first volume with a brief history of the making of the Constitution followed by the text of the Constitution itself, 'as originally adopted,' that is, without the amendments we know as the Bill of Rights." That Introduction can be found in volume 1 of the Annals of Congress.
(U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
This resource, within the National Archives' America's Founding Documents collection, contains images of the original documents, links to amendments, and articles about the Constitution.
(Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
Contains the text of the U.S. Constitution, with links to "explanations" as found in the Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation.
(National Constitution Center)
This private nonprofit organization invited legal scholars, from diverse perspectives, to provide commentary and analysis of the text, history, and meaning of the U.S. Constitution.
(National Constitution Center)
PDF copies of the U.S. Constitution in Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Simplified Chinese.
(Political Database of the Americas, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University)
Includes text in English and Spanish.
The Federalist Papers (1788) and various other historical documents, such as Magna Carta (1215), are sometimes credited with having influenced the content of the Constitution of the United States or its initial Amendments (the Bill of Rights). The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was influenced by the U.S. Constitution, although it radically attempted to change its effect.
(The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School)
(A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation)
This collection contains congressional publications from 1774 to 1875, including, for example, the Journals of the Continental Congress, the Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Elliot's Debates), and The Records of the Federal Convention of 1787 (Farrand's Records).
(The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School)
Includes the Constitution of Confederate States of America, and other Confederate legal documents.
(Library of Congress)
Digital collection of 277 documents relating to the work of Congress and the drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution.
(Library of Congress)
Provides the text of the Declaration of Independence of 1776, along with a scanned images of the original document and the four pages of Thomas Jefferson's draft of the document.
(U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
This resource, within the National Archives' America's Founding Documents collection, includes the text and scanned images of the original document and the initial stone engraving of the document, as well as articles and commentaries.
(Library of Congress)
Online exhibit on Thomas Jefferson, including a section focused on Jefferson's work drafting and revising the document.
(Library of Congress)
The Federalist (also known as The Federalist Papers) was issued as a series of highly influential essays in support of the proposed United States Constitution, most of which appeared initially in New York newspapers under the pen name "Publius" during 1787 and 1788. The actual authors were Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison.
(The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School)
(U.S. National Archives and Records Administration)
The immensely influential Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, was adopted by the colonial convention June 12, 1776. The opening of the Declaration of Independence (adopted a few weeks later) borrowed from this document, and the U.S. Bill of Rights was adopted directly from this version of the natural rights of man, as previously proclaimed in the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and philosophers such as John Locke.
(The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School)