Constitution of the United States of America

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. It was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in each state in the name of "the People"; it has since been amended twenty-seven times. The Constitution has a central place in American law and political culture.

United States Constitution in The Disunited States of America
In one alternate, the United States never adopted the Constitution. By the early 19th century, the United States ceased to exist and split into several different nations.

United States Constitution in Joe Steele
Under President Joe Steele, the Constitution was suborned, manipulated, and ultimately violated, with Steele justifying these actions as being in the country's best interest. Steele argued that the Constitution was not a suicide pact. In 1934, after the arrest of the Supreme Court Four, Steele suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus, despite Article I, Section 9's limitation on suspension to instances of rebellion and invasion, arguing that the U.S. was at war against hunger, poverty, and want, and that the Justices were aiding the "enemy". In later years, the First Amendment proved to be no protection for Steele's critics, as several who spoke against Steele were arrested, tried for treason, and imprisoned or executed.

After Steele's death, John Nance Garner ascended to the presidency. Despite his efforts to reduce Steele's tyranny, Garner was impeached, convicted, and removed from office by Congress. Thanks to a series of events, there was no legal successor to Garner. GBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, claiming that Congress was trying to usurp executive powers in violation of the Constitution, assumed "emergency" powers and seized the executive, without Constitutional authority.

United States Constitution in Southern Victory
In the Remembrance culture, the United States Constitution and the freedoms it protected were suborned by the United States' driving need to defeat the Confederate States. After the Great War, the country retreated some from the more authoritarian tendencies of Remembrance.

The Constitution of the Confederate States of America was heavily based upon the US one, often quoting verbatim from the older document. One difference was the legality of owning Slaves, which was explicitly protected in the Confederate document until after the Second Mexican War.

United States Constitution in "Must and Shall"
After the Great Rebellion, the United States Constitution ratified the Sixteenth Amendment, which stripped the white men who'd led the Great Rebellion of the right to vote in national elections. That disenfrancisement extended to their descendants.

When Neil Michaels asked an elevator operator in New Orleans why Southerners never sought to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, the young man said to do so would be an acknowledgment of the legitimacy of the U.S. government.

United States Constitution in Worldwar
The Race did not fully appreciate the functionality of United States Constitution. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt died, Fleetlord Atvar gloated that the US would collapse shortly after. Instead, adherence to the principles of Constitution and dully enacted legislation permitted Secretary of State Cordell Hull to take the oath of office (Vice President Henry Wallace had been killed in action the previous year).

In 1964, the Constitution worked to the Race's benefit. The Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of United States Constitution reads "Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]." President Earl Warren understood the Free Exercise Clause to require him to assent to Fleetlord Atvar's request that the Race be allowed to set up shrines to the Spirits of Emperors Past in US territory, making the US the only independent Tosevite not-empire to honor this request.

Known Amendments to the Constitution in the works of Harry Turtledove
In the majority of Turtledove's work, the Constitution is the exact same document as in OTL until the 19th or 20th centuries. Listed below are the known changes and/or relevant amendments of the U.S. Constitution that are dealt with in Turtledove's writing.

First Amendment
This Amendment is the same throughout all Turtledove works with a Point of Divergence after 1791. As described above, the Free Exercise Clause played a role in Worldwar.

The Reconstruction Amendments: Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
The so-called Reconstruction Amendements were adopted in the aftermath of the American Civil War. These amendments are present in all Turtledove works with a Point of Divergence after 1865. One exception is "Must and Shall", (POD 1864), where strong evidence exists that these reconstruction amendments, plus additional amendments, were ratified.

In The Guns of the South (POD 1864), references are made to the fact that the thriteenth amendment was not gaining momentum in the U.S. Presumably, given the change in circumstances, the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments were not ratified, if ever introduced.

In Southern Victory, the United States had outlawed slavery by 1881. At one point, Frederick Douglass states that for freed blacks to gain equality in the U.S., another amendment to the Constitution is necessary. This suggests that slavery in the U.S. was ended by a Constitutional amendment analagous to the Thirteenth. The remaining amendments also do not appear to exist in any recognizable form, although the voting rights guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment do seem to have been adopted either by the individual states or the country as a whole at some point.

The Sixteenth Amendment
In OTL, the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified in 1913, granting Congress the power to tax income. It appears in this form in any story with a POD after 1913.

In "Must and Shall", the Sixteenth Amendment was one more Reconstruction Amendment. It disenfranchised all white descendents of those who fought for the Confederacy.

The Seventeenth Amendment
In OTL, the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified in 1913. It allowed for the direct election of United States Senators, rather than via the state legislatures as orignally mandated by Article I, § 3, Clauses 1 and 2. It appears in this form in any story with a POD after 1913.

In Southern Victory, we learn that at some point, the United States did begin the direct election of Senators, which would require an amendment to the Constitution. The particulars of this amendment, including its number, are not addressed.

The Eighteenth Amendment
In OTL, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified January 16, 1919, with the amendment taking effect on January 17, 1920. It effectively established the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in the United States by declaring illegal the production, transport and sale of alcohol (though not the consumption or private possession). It was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933. Thus, while it appears in its OTL form in any story with a POD after 1919, in most Turtledove works, the Eighteenth Amendment is rarely relevant.

It is mentioned in passing in Joe Steele, where the titular Joe Steele does favor its repeal. As characters consume a great deal of alcohol later in the novel, implicitly, the 21st Amendment was also ratified on the same schedule at OTL.

The Nineteenth Amendment
In OTL, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920, and granted women the right to vote. It exists in this form in all stories with a POD after 1920. In Southern Victory, the Nineteenth Amendment provided the same rights, but was passed in 1928.

The Twentieth Amendment
The Twentieth Amendment was ratified in January, 1933, but went into effect that October. It moved the beginning of the President's term to January 20th at noon and the Congressional term at January 3rd at noon.

In Joe Steele, the ratification of the Twentieth Amendment takes place on the same schedule as OTL.

In Southern Victory, a constitutional amendment, (number unspecified but probably the 20th), does the exact same thing, save for moving inauguration day up to February 1st, rather than January 20th. It was also ratified before 1933.

The Twenty-Eight Amendment
As of this writing, the U.S. Constitution has been twenty-seven times in OTL, although there are several proposals for additional amendments. The short story "Elder Skelter" addresses one possible Twenty-Eighth Amendment, a balanced-budget amendment.