Overview

Map of connections

The Declaration, the Constitution and its amendments, passage by passage. Above each one, the links that reach it from the debates (4,830); below it, the Supreme Court cases whose Constitution Annotated essays cite it (355), oldest first. Select a passage to open it.

What the map shows is where links have been made, not where the founders argued most.

Bars: links from the debates, by side; a bar's length grows with the square root of its count, so a few links still show (the table below has the counts). Dots: cases, oldest nearest the spine; a ring marks an overruled case. On a wide screen, drag or scroll sideways to move along, and Ctrl+scroll to zoom; on a phone, tap a passage to see it. With the map focused, the arrow keys move between passages and Enter opens one.

Essays answering essays

Each arc joins two works of the debate that answer, rebut, quote or cite each other; the thicker the arc, the more links. Select a work to open it.

The map as a table

Passage	The Federalist and Federalist essays	Anti-Federalist essays	Debates in Congress	Other	Cases
Declaration
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 1	1			2
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 2	1	1		3
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 3
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 4				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 5
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 6
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 7				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 8
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 9
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 10
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 11
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 12
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 13
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 14
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 15
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 16
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 17
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 18				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 19				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 20
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 21				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 22
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 23
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 24				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 25
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 26
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 27
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 28
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 29				1
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 30
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 31
Declaration of Independence, ¶ 32				3
Preamble
Preamble	4	3	84	13
Article I
Article I, Section 1, Clause 1	6	2	3	5	15
Article I, Section 2, Clause 1	17	9	414	14	1
Article I, Section 2, Clause 2	5	1	7	2	4
Article I, Section 2, Clause 3	17	20	69	13
Article I, Section 2, Clause 4	2		5	1
Article I, Section 2, Clause 5	7	2		4
Article I, Section 3, Clause 1	25	12	85	7
Article I, Section 3, Clause 2	7	1	17
Article I, Section 3, Clause 3	5		6		2
Article I, Section 3, Clause 4	5	2	8	1
Article I, Section 3, Clause 5	2
Article I, Section 3, Clause 6	12	8	12	4
Article I, Section 3, Clause 7	8	1	1	4
Article I, Section 4, Clause 1	19	23	373	15	3
Article I, Section 4, Clause 2	2		25	1
Article I, Section 5, Clause 1	5	3	35	4
Article I, Section 5, Clause 2	4	1	9		1
Article I, Section 5, Clause 3	4		6	1	1
Article I, Section 5, Clause 4	1		2	2
Article I, Section 6, Clause 1	5	1	5	1	2
Article I, Section 6, Clause 2	11	1	1	8	2
Article I, Section 7, Clause 1	7	2	7	1
Article I, Section 7, Clause 2	13	2	9	2	1
Article I, Section 7, Clause 3	1		11		1
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1	16	15	16	18	6
Article I, Section 8, Clause 2	4
Article I, Section 8, Clause 3	9	6	14	1	14
Article I, Section 8, Clause 4	5	2	6		8
Article I, Section 8, Clause 5	3
Article I, Section 8, Clause 6	2		1
Article I, Section 8, Clause 7	2		1
Article I, Section 8, Clause 8	4
Article I, Section 8, Clause 9	6	3	2
Article I, Section 8, Clause 10	3		1	3
Article I, Section 8, Clause 11	3		4		4
Article I, Section 8, Clause 12	14	8	2	8
Article I, Section 8, Clause 13	5	1	2	2
Article I, Section 8, Clause 14	2				1
Article I, Section 8, Clause 15	7	5	1	9
Article I, Section 8, Clause 16	10	5		11
Article I, Section 8, Clause 17	8	3	14	8
Article I, Section 8, Clause 18	14	12	40	26	18
Article I, Section 9, Clause 1	8	4	21	15
Article I, Section 9, Clause 2	7	4	1	8
Article I, Section 9, Clause 3	6	4	9	3	7
Article I, Section 9, Clause 4	3	1	12	4	2
Article I, Section 9, Clause 5	4	1	1
Article I, Section 9, Clause 6	2	1	1	2
Article I, Section 9, Clause 7	3			5
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8	9	1	2	7
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1	15	6	17	7	3
Article I, Section 10, Clause 2	12	2	1	4
Article I, Section 10, Clause 3	3		1	3	1
Article II
Article II, Section 1, Clause 1	10	3	36	3	6
Article II, Section 1, Clause 2	9	3	72	2	1
Article II, Section 1, Clause 3	7	2	60	2
Article II, Section 1, Clause 4	4	1	12	1
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5	5	3	18
Article II, Section 1, Clause 6	2	3	37	1
Article II, Section 1, Clause 7	5	1		3
Article II, Section 1, Clause 8	2	1	1	1
Article II, Section 2, Clause 1	9	6	10	6	6
Article II, Section 2, Clause 2	31	15	16	14	11
Article II, Section 2, Clause 3	5		1	4
Article II, Section 3, Clause 1	10	4	5	2	5
Article II, Section 4, Clause 1	7	1	1	4
Article III
Article III, Section 1, Clause 1	15	4	2	9	13
Article III, Section 2, Clause 1	27	16	7	19	27
Article III, Section 2, Clause 2	20	8	2	12	1
Article III, Section 2, Clause 3	15	7	3	5
Article III, Section 3, Clause 1	5	1	2	7
Article III, Section 3, Clause 2	5	1	1	2
Article IV
Article IV, Section 1, Clause 1	4		2	3	2
Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1	3	1	38	1	4
Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2	1		2	1	1
Article IV, Section 2, Clause 3	2		29	3
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1	4		2
Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2	3			4	1
Article IV, Section 4, Clause 1	8	5	64	12	3
Article V
Article V, Clause 1	14	3	413	16	1
Article VI
Article VI, Clause 1	2	1	1	3
Article VI, Clause 2	13	22	13	13	4
Article VI, Clause 3	8	6	19	11
Article VII
Article VII, Clause 1	6	3	16	3
Amendment 1
Amendment I			10		40
Amendment 2
Amendment II			3		4
Amendment 3
Amendment III			4		2
Amendment 4
Amendment IV			5		13
Amendment 5
Amendment V			22		18
Amendment 6
Amendment VI			4		13
Amendment 7
Amendment VII			1
Amendment 8
Amendment VIII			5		6
Amendment 9
Amendment IX			16		3
Amendment 10
Amendment X			70		12
Amendment 11
Amendment XI			16		4
Amendment 12
Amendment XII			94
Amendment 13
Amendment XIII, Section 1			56		2
Amendment XIII, Section 2			11		3
Amendment 14
Amendment XIV, Section 1			143		49
Amendment XIV, Section 2			64
Amendment XIV, Section 3			37
Amendment XIV, Section 4			22
Amendment XIV, Section 5			30		2
Amendment 15
Amendment XV, Section 1			91
Amendment XV, Section 2			20
Amendment 16
Amendment XVI			7		1
Amendment 17
Amendment XVII, Clause 1			100
Amendment XVII, Clause 2			16
Amendment XVII, Clause 3			13
Amendment 18
Amendment XVIII, Section 1			24
Amendment XVIII, Section 2			16
Amendment XVIII, Section 3			25
Amendment 19
Amendment XIX, Clause 1			21
Amendment XIX, Clause 2			3
Amendment 20
Amendment XX, Section 1			18
Amendment XX, Section 2			18
Amendment XX, Section 3			6
Amendment XX, Section 4			8
Amendment XX, Section 5			8
Amendment XX, Section 6			13
Amendment 21
Amendment XXI, Section 1			8
Amendment XXI, Section 2			10
Amendment XXI, Section 3			11
Amendment 22
Amendment XXII, Section 1			20
Amendment XXII, Section 2			4
Amendment 23
Amendment XXIII, Section 1			18
Amendment XXIII, Section 2			3
Amendment 24
Amendment XXIV, Section 1			12
Amendment XXIV, Section 2			10
Amendment 25
Amendment XXV, Section 1			12
Amendment XXV, Section 2			15
Amendment XXV, Section 3			13
Amendment XXV, Section 4			41
Amendment 26
Amendment XXVI, Section 1			5
Amendment XXVI, Section 2			3
Amendment 27
Amendment XXVII			1