The Constitution of the United States, a relatively short document comprised of a preamble, seven articles, and 27 amendments, is the supreme law of the land.

No federal or state law, local ordinance, or administrative rule can contradict or override the protections and provisions embodied in the Constitution, first adopted in 1787, and subsequently revised, or amended, through more than 200 years of American history.

The Constitution establishes the basic structure and authority of the federal government and provides protections for the rights and freedoms of individual citizens.

Under the Constitution, the three branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial — are designed to check and balance each other through the enumeration of specific, and in some cases, shared powers. For example, the President, as head of the executive branch of government, can negotiate a treaty with another nation. The treaty cannot enter into force, however, until it is agreed to by a two-thirds vote of the Senate, the upper house of the legislative branch.

The Constitution lists specific, or "expressed," powers that belong to each branch of government. However, it also confers "implied powers" that arise out of the language and intent of the Constitution, enabling the federal government to respond to changing circumstances and needs.

Powers not given to the federal government nor prohibited to the states are called "reserved powers," meaning that they are reserved to the states and to the people themselves. Because the Constitution is a broadly written document, the meaning of specific provisions of the Constitution has been the subject of vigorous debate and dispute since its drafting in 1787.

Although the term "judicial review" does not appear in the Constitution itself, for example, it is a fixed and longstanding constitutional principle that courts have the authority to declare any law — federal, state, or local — "unconstitutional," and therefore invalid because it contradicts the meaning or provisions of the Constitution. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, establish the foundation for the protection of individual rights and freedoms in the United States. Among them:

· Freedom of speech, religion, and assembly;
· Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures of property;
· Right to due process of law when one is accused of a crime
· Prohibition against forced self-incrimination;
· Right to fair, prompt, and public trial;
· Prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment; and
· Assurance that rights and powers not listed in the Constitution belong to the states and to the people themselves.

Although the Constitution is a specific document, it is the basis for a much larger body of law, regulations, court decisions, precedent, and customary practice that, taken together, make up the legal system of the United States.

In the words of World Book's Constitution of the United States of America With Explanatory Notes:

"The Constitution has continued to develop in response to the demands of an ever-growing society through all these methods. Yet the spirit and wording of the Constitution have remained constant. People of each generation have applied its provisions to their own problems in ways that seem reasonable to them."

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