Most Important US Constitutional Amendment?

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Pretty self-explanatory.

However, those with doctoral degrees in American Constitutional History or Advanced Mathematics may have noticed that the poll does not encompass all 27 amendments to the US constitution.

I've tried to focus on the most obvious amendments (some might even pool together the Bill of Rights or the Reconstruction Amendments), but here is a full list in case you disagree with my selection:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_am ... nstitution

But if you choose the 18th Amendment, then you are probably trolling.

Oh, and feel free to rank your favourite three, five or more amendments in your reply, if that's more to your liking.

Got it? Good.

I'd say all but that's not one of the choices.
Having said that, I'd choose the 2nd Amendment since that's what gives the whole Bill of Rights its teeth.

Ditto on all,but since I like to argue, I've got to go with number one.
"The pen is mightier than the sword." Edward Bulwer-Lytton.

Can I recommend another one for a future list?

The 16th amendement (taxes without apportionment) really did nothing other than override a (poorly written IMO) Supreme Court decision overturning a prior income tax bill, and that decision was later overturned. On legal grounds, the 16th amendement did pretty much nothing. In reality, it forced through the income tax, which later become the tool to finance what is now the world's most powerful government.

This question shows why it's hard to "rank" the amendements, since all of the "important" ones really touch on the most important parts of our country, shared values, and form of government.

It would be far easier to argue which ones arn't important. I'd say the 27th might be the most useless, since it's never enforced in practice. I don't see CPI adjustments to existing congressional pay as violating the letter of the law, through I do see it, IMO, as going against the spirit of the proposal when it was proposed (but not when passed).

1st. Nothing is more repugnant to me than trying to control what people are "allowed" to say.

5th, 6th and 8th look the most important to me. Freedom of speech or the ability to vote is no use once you're being hauled into prison and waterboarded and you don't know why.

I would probably say the First, though the Bill of Rights in general seems like a package deal.

The first.

Because the rest would not mean much without freedom of speech, and of the press.

I would have to say that the 1st ammendment is by far the most important; it is the whole philosophy behind the founding of this nation. That being said, it would be worthless without ammendments 4-10, 13-15, 19, 24, and 26.

It's a toss between 1 and 2.

The first is a critical amendment, but without the second, it's only a question of when you lose the first. Hence, I think the 2nd is actually more important by a narrow margin.

The government has the private gun owners out gunned, out tanked, out planed and out cannoned.

ruveyn

And that worked how well for us in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or for the Soviets in Afghanistan?

People don't realise the value of guerrilla warfare even though examples are fairly abundant.

I voted the 22nd Amendment because I have always believed that even the wisest sages will turn foolish if they remain in power for too long. Most people are unwilling to surrender power once they have tasted power, so I'm glad that the 22nd Amendment is still in existence.

Worked out pretty well in both cases, where the US achieved their aims comfortably. The communists gained power in Afghanistan, and only lost it because of the support the US gave to the Muhjadeen. The Soviets withdrew before the communists lost power anyway, if they'd have stuck around they might have kept power (and then the US wouldn't have wasted so much money overthrowing the Taliban- this is probably the biggest downside of the US's anti-communist stance).

Vietnam is probably the best example, but I am no historian. I think someone on here posted about a small village which held off the Romans, for example.

But in all those cases, the guerilla army can hardly be said to have "won". If the US Army ever turned against the US people (which I can't see ever happening) then the American people would lose life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness en masse.

back to the subject of amendments, here's an amusing article related to the 4th:
reason.com