This started in james_nicoll's post here, but I like the idea, so I'm going to run with it. This is primarily for Americans (as defined broadly--citizens, naturalized aliens, illegal immigrants...anybody who would have a reason to particularly care)...

From memory, without references, how many Amendments to the United States Constitution can you identify/explain?

There are 27. It's enough to give what the Amendment is commonly referred to as. (Except that you can't say the First Amendment is "the First Amendment" or the like, of course.)

Bonus points for identifying/explaining Articles of the Constitution itself. There are 7 of those. There are also some particularly important Sections of those Articles, and indeed some pretty major Clauses--just knowing what they are and what they do, no need to number them.

Here's my list:

( Amendments )

I have some idea on 24 of 27, I'm unsure on 7, and I probably missed details of a few more. Not bad, but not great. Then again, I'm in law, we live and die by citation and reference material.

( Articles, Sections, Clauses )

So. Seven Articles, I know three pretty well, one I know the most important part of, two I'm much more shaky on, one barely courts. I know some a couple of significant Sections and Clauses, too. Again, not great--I bet that I could memorize the whole thing with a bit of work, but haven't done so--but not awful, I think.

Oh, and I can recite the Preamble, but that's a cheat--see music line.

I didn't post my first two legal filks, because they're frankly not very good, and were written more specifically for the NYU Law Revue, and didn't get used anyway.

But this one was written for me and the filkers. I realized last night that I didn't have anything recent for the housefilk today--and that the most recent thing I had, three months old, didn't work well for me to sing. So I dusted off an idea I'd been thinking about, started trying to write it...and it flowed very easily indeed.

"Sixteen Hours"
by Will "scifantasy" Frank
ttto: "Sixteen Tons" by Merle Travis (or George S. Davis)

( Some people say a lawyer is a dirty snake... )

This went over pretty well at the housefilk, I must say.