Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation

The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation, popularly known as the Constitution Annotated, encompasses the U.S. Constitution and analysis and interpretation of the U.S. Constitution with in-text annotations of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Visit constitution.congress.gov to access the Library of Congress' regularly updated online version of the Constitution Annotated.

The U.S. Constitution comprises the primary law of the U.S. Federal Government. It describes the three chief branches of the Federal Government and their jurisdictions, and lays out the basic rights of citizens of the United States. The U.S. Constitution is the oldest Federal constitution in existence and was framed by a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen original states in Philadelphia in May 1787, Rhode Island failing to send a delegate. The U.S. Constitution is the landmark legal document of the United States.

GPO provides access to Constitution Annotated editions and supplements from 1992 forward. The volume has been published as a bound edition every ten years, with cumulative updates issued in the intervening years biannually as inserts that address new constitutional case law, primarily from U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The analysis is provided by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) at the Library of Congress. Read More