The United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States of America organizes the American government and the relationship between the federal government, the states and the citizens.
It defines the three branches of government: a legislature (the Senate and the House of Representatives); an executive (the President); and a judicial branch (the Supreme Court).
All powers not attributed to these three branches are automatically delegated to the states and the people : the USA has a federal government, and some issues, such as the death penalty or gay marriage, belong to the individual states.
The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. It has been amended twenty-seven times. The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights.
The handwritten original document is at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. See the original documents here.
