Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
Sixteenth Amendment reaches the state-ratification threshold
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Three state legislatures approved it on the same day — which is why official federal histories still hedge over which one was the 36th.
3 February 1913: three states at once
The legislatures of Delaware, Wyoming and New Mexico all approved the proposed Sixteenth Amendment on 3 February 1913. With 35 states already recorded as having ratified, those votes carried the proposal past the required three-fourths — 36 of the 48 states then in the Union.
Because the three acted the same day, official sources differ over which should be called the 36th. Congress's Constitution Annotated deliberately lists “Delaware, Wyoming, or New Mexico.”
One sentence, and the words that do the work
The text empowered Congress to tax incomes “from whatever source derived,” without apportionment among the states and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Congress already held broad taxing power. What the amendment principally removed was the requirement that an income tax treated as direct be apportioned among the states by population.
Nothing came out of a paycheck that day
No income-tax statute was enacted on 3 February, and the amendment did not create the Internal Revenue Service. The immediate constitutional change was the removal of the apportionment obstacle for taxes on income.
Secretary of State Philander C. Knox certified that the amendment had become part of the Constitution 22 days later, on 25 February.
Sources
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What the sources leave uncertain
- The date is not disputed, but official sources differ over which of the three same-day ratifiers should be called the “36th.” Congress’s Constitution Annotated deliberately lists “Delaware, Wyoming, or New Mexico.”
- Knox’s February 25 proclamation counted Delaware and Wyoming among its first 36 and listed New Mexico as an additional ratifier. This reflects the documentary record available to the State Department, not a different ratification date.