Debts accrued by the Union before the Constitution’s ratification remain valid. The Constitution is the nation’s “supreme law” which judges across states are bound to uphold.

Members of Congress, state legislators, judicial officials, and executive officials at the state and federal levels take an “Oath or Affirmation” to uphold the Constitution. Officials are not subject to a religious test to serve in office.

The Constitution is ratified by a minimum of nine states at their conventions.

The text makes notes of revisions or corrections to the previous article, like an erasure made in the 15th line of the first page of the original document and is “attested” by Secretary William Jackson. It is dated as having been completed in convention with the “unanimous consent” of the states present on September 17, 1788, and is signed by George Washington, the first president, and delegates from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey.