7. How many amendments does the Constitution have?
Answer:
Twenty-seven (27)
Explanation:
When the Founding Fathers (or the men who made the U.S. government) wrote the Constitution in 1787,
they wanted a government that would grow and change as America grew and changed.
Everything they had written seemed like a good idea,
but they knew that people might need or want to change parts of the Constitution later.
The Founding Fathers wanted their new government to last a long time,
and allowing Constitutional Amendments was their way
to make sure that the government could change to meet the changing country’s needs.
The word amendment comes from the verb to amend, which means to change something,
so an amendment is a change to the Constitution.
Because the Constitution is always changing and being reinterpreted (or read again and understood differently),
many people call it a “living document.”
Amendments are added to the Constitution for many reasons:
to overrule (or cancel or undo) a decision made by the Supreme Court (the highest court of the United States),
to change something that was written in the Constitution,
or to change something in society.
For example,