Reference Library

Vests all federal legislative power in a bicameral Congress. Defines composition, elections, powers of taxation, commerce, war, and the necessary-and-proper clause.

Creates the office of President and Vice President, sets election via the Electoral College, and outlines executive duties: commander-in-chief, treaty-making, appointments, and enforcement of laws.

Establishes one Supreme Court, empowers Congress to create lower courts, defines federal judicial jurisdiction, and specifies the crime of treason and its proof.

Requires each state to give full faith and credit to others' laws, guarantees privileges and immunities to citizens across states, governs extradition, and admits new states.

Two proposal routes (Congress or a convention of states) and one ratification standard (three-fourths of state legislatures or conventions).

Assumes prior debts, declares the Constitution and federal laws the supreme law of the land, and requires officers to swear loyalty to the Constitution — with no religious test for office.

Provided that ratification by nine states would establish the Constitution among those states — bypassing the Articles of Confederation's unanimity rule.