Current Events > Non American Users: How many of the U.S Constitution amendments do you know?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Please list the number and what your understanding of that amendment is.

I suspect :

Near everyone knows what the second amendment is. But I'm wondering if guys in Germany and Mexico and Vietnam know about the 1st, 4th, 5th, 14th etc.

Let's find out

I'm Swedish and I don't know what they are, at all, any of them or how many of them there are.

Newave posted...

I'm Swedish and I don't know what they are, at all, any of them or how many of them there are.

I am very surprised that you don't know the second amendment.

Especially in Sweden.

The others I'm not surprised by.

As a Swede, I think that the first one should be known, since it was basically inspired by Swedish rights.

1 Freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition a government.
2 Keep and beararms.
4 The need of search warrants.
5 Take the fifth, being allowed to not answer questions. And I think double jeopardy is included here.
13 I think this was Lincolns anti-slavery amendment.
18 Forbids alcohol.
21 Alcohol is legal again.
22 Roosevelt is too popular so we must limit the number of times anybody can be the President to two.

I'm not sure many Americans even know them all.

Offhand I know the 1st, 2nd and I believe loosely, the 8th and 25th. Also recently the 14th because its been brought up so much for obvious reasons.

One: Freedom of expression and no state sponsored religion.

Two: Right to bear arms (the whole militia thing notwithstanding)

Eight: Cruel and unusual punishment?

Twenty-five: I think it covers more than this, but how the office is handled when the president is compromised or incapacitated.

I also know about other rights such as unreasonable search, not to have your property used to garrison soldiers, a speedy trial, and for bail not to be excessive; but I dont know offhand which amendments cover these.

Edit: The 22nd as well. The term limits for president and vice president.

Freedom of speech (for gov only, does not apply to private entities)

Freedom to bear arms

Right to speedy trial (massive failure here)

Something about not incriminating yourself

Wow, I cant believe I forgot to mention the 5th.

European here

1st, Freedom of Speech and religion.
2nd, right to bear arms
5th, right to remain silent

Probably know some more without knowing that they are part of the constituion / the number.

Non American? I bet actual Americans can barely understand any of them.

UnfairRepresent posted...

I am very surprised that you don't know the second amendment.

Especially in Sweden.

The others I'm not surprised by.

Americans don't know what the second amendment says OR means... why would we?

I know the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 18th and 21st. I know what a few others are but not their number.

EDIT: And I'm not 100% sure about the numbers for 18 and 21 either; I'm thinking of prohibition and its repeal.

Just to clarify my earlier post a bit.

Without looking anything up, I would not have known any of this stuff in detail.

I've heard of a few of these out of context, like mentioned in movies etc.; americans have a legal right to own guns, a legal right to pick their religion and some other basic stuff, but I wouldn't have known if it was part of the constitution or what exactly an amendment was, how many of them they are and so on.

I don't know any of that stuff by heart.

It's practically never part of normal everyday conversation and it's not something that governs my rights or something I have any control over as a non-american, so it's irrelevant optional information at best for a vast majority of us.

On top of that, it's also more than enough trying to keep up with my own nation and the rest of [the most relevant parts of] europe when it comes to laws, politics, legal rights and so on.
Without looking it up, I don't know these kind of laws and rights in accurate detail for any country, barely even my own, let alone very foreign far away countries on the other side of the world like USA.

For example, I've been to many different european countries in my life, even lived and worked in Britain for a few years, about 15-20 years back, but without looking it up I have no idea what their respective to the USA constitution would be, if there is even is any.

I've never been to USA and have no plans of going there, so knowing this stuff, especially by heart without looking it up, is of the lowest possible priority and completely optional, and I feel extremely confident that I speak for a huge majority of swedes and other europeans/non-americans when I say that.

Newave posted...

I've never been to USA and have no plans of going there, so knowing this stuff, especially by heart without looking it up, is of the lowest possible priority and completely optional, and I feel extremely confident that I speak for a huge majority of swedes and other europeans/non-americans when I say that.

I've found this stuff mostly comes up when watching game shows. That's what actually gave me a trivia-learning mindset. I only know half the things I do (which isn't much) about geography, etc. because they came up as questions and that prompted me to look into them.

UnfairRepresent posted...

But I'm wondering if guys in Germany

I think the first amendment is either freedom of speech or separation of church and state

teep_ posted...

I think the first amendment is either freedom of speech or separation of church and state

Its both.