Bill of Rights

Bill of Rights, in the United States, the first 10 amendments to the U.S.
Constitution, which were adopted as a single unit on December 15, 1791, and which
constitute a collection of mutually reinforcing guarantees of individual rights and
of limitations on federal and state governments.
Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
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The Bill of Rights derives from the Magna Carta (1215), the English Bill of Rights
(1689), the colonial struggle against king and Parliament, and a gradually
broadening concept of equality among the American people. Virginia’s 1776
Declaration of Rights, drafted chiefly by George Mason, was a notable forerunner.
Besides being axioms of government, the guarantees in the Bill of Rights have
binding legal force. Acts of Congress in conflict with them may be voided by the
U.S. Supreme Court when the question of the constitutionality of such acts arises
in litigation (see judicial review).
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The Constitution in its main body forbids suspension of the writ of habeas corpus
except in cases of rebellion or invasion (Article I, section 9); prohibits state or
federal bills of attainder and ex post facto laws (I, 9, 10); requires that all
crimes against the United States be tried by jury in the state where committed
(III, 2); limits the definition, trial, and punishment of treason (III, 3);
prohibits titles of nobility (I, 9) and religious tests for officeholding (VI);
guarantees a republican form of government in every state (IV, 4); and assures each
citizen the privileges and immunities of the citizens of the several states (IV,
2).
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Popular dissatisfaction with the limited guarantees of the main body of the
Constitution expressed in the state conventions called to ratify it led to demands
and promises that the first Congress of the United States satisfied by submitting
to the states 12 amendments. Ten were ratified. (The second of the 12 amendments,
which required any change to the rate of compensation for congressional members to
take effect only after the subsequent election in the House of Representatives, was
ratified as the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992.) Individual states being subject
to their own bills of rights, these amendments were limited to restraining the
federal government. The Senate refused to submit James Madison’s amendment
(approved by the House of Representatives) protecting religious liberty, freedom of
the press, and trial by jury against violation by the states.
Under the First Amendment, Congress can make no law respecting an establishment of
religion or prohibiting its free exercise, or abridging freedom of speech or press
or the right to assemble and petition for redress of grievances. Hostility to
standing armies found expression in the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the
people’s right to bear arms and in the Third Amendment’s prohibition of the
involuntary quartering of soldiers in private houses.
The Fourth Amendment secures the people against unreasonable searches and seizures
and forbids the issuance of warrants except upon probable cause and directed to
specific persons and places. The Fifth Amendment requires grand jury indictment in
prosecutions for major crimes and prohibits double jeopardy for a single offense.
It provides that no person shall be compelled to testify against himself and
forbids the taking of life, liberty, or property without due process of law and the
taking of private property for public use (eminent domain) without just
compensation. By the Sixth Amendment, an accused person is to have a speedy public
trial by jury, to be informed of the nature of the accusation, to be confronted
with prosecution witnesses, and to have the assistance of counsel. The Seventh
Amendment formally established the right to trial by jury in civil cases. Excessive
bail or fines and cruel and unusual punishment are forbidden by the Eighth
Amendment. The Ninth Amendment protects unenumerated residual rights of the people,
and, by the Tenth, powers not delegated to the United States are reserved to the
states or the people.
After the American Civil War (1861–65), slavery was abolished by the Thirteenth
Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) declared that all persons born or
naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens
thereof. It forbids the states to abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens
of the United States or to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without
due process of law. Beginning in the early 20th century, the Supreme Court used the
due process clause to gradually incorporate, or apply against the states, most of
the guarantees contained in the Bill of Rights, which formerly had been understood
to apply only against the federal government. Thus, the due process clause finally
made effective the major portion of Madison’s unaccepted 1789 proposal.

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Bill of Rights, in the United States, the first 10 amendments to the U.S.

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