The Bill of Rights Explained...
The Bill of Rights is the name of the first ten amendments found in the United States United States Constitution. The bill of Rights serves to protect the rights of liberty and property. It also guarantees certain of personal freedoms, reserve some powers to the states and the public, and limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings. While the amendments originally only applied to the federal government, many of their provisions are now applied to the states due to the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Bill of Rights was first introduced to the first United States Congress by James Madison as a group of legislative articles. These articles were then adopted on August 21, 1789 by the House of Representatives and were formally proposed on September 25, 1789 by a joint resolution of Congress, and finally came into effect on December 15, 1791 as Constitutional Amendments, after being ratified by three-fourths of the States. Although twelve of the amendments were passed by Congress, only ten of the amendments were passed originally by the states. Out of the remaining two that were not passed by the states, one amendment was later adopted as the 27th Amendment while the other technically is still pending before the states.
The Bill of Rights originally included legal protection for only for land-owning white men, and did not provide the same protection for women an African Americans. It took more Constitutional Amendments and many Supreme Court cases to finally give the same rights to all United States citizens.
The Bill of Rights is very important to American government and law, and to this day it still remains an important symbol of the freedoms given in the United States.
These are the ten rights that are in the Bill of Rights:
The Bill of Rights was first introduced to the first United States Congress by James Madison as a group of legislative articles. These articles were then adopted on August 21, 1789 by the House of Representatives and were formally proposed on September 25, 1789 by a joint resolution of Congress, and finally came into effect on December 15, 1791 as Constitutional Amendments, after being ratified by three-fourths of the States. Although twelve of the amendments were passed by Congress, only ten of the amendments were passed originally by the states. Out of the remaining two that were not passed by the states, one amendment was later adopted as the 27th Amendment while the other technically is still pending before the states.
The Bill of Rights originally included legal protection for only for land-owning white men, and did not provide the same protection for women an African Americans. It took more Constitutional Amendments and many Supreme Court cases to finally give the same rights to all United States citizens.
The Bill of Rights is very important to American government and law, and to this day it still remains an important symbol of the freedoms given in the United States.
These are the ten rights that are in the Bill of Rights:
- Congress can't make any law about your religion, or stop you from practicing your religion, or keep you from saying whatever you want, or publishing whatever you want (like in a newspaper or a book). And Congress can't stop you from meeting peacefully for a demonstration to ask the government to change something.
- Congress can't stop people from having and carrying weapons, because we need to be able to defend ourselves.
- You don't have to let soldiers live in your house, except if there is a war, and even then only if Congress has passed a law about it.
- Nobody can search your body, or your house, or your papers and things, unless they can prove to a judge that they have a good reason to think you have committed a crime.
- You can't be tried for any serious crime without a Grand Jury meeting first to decide whether there's enough evidence for a trial. And if the jury decides you are innocent, the government can't try again with another jury. You don't have to say anything at your trial. You can't be killed, or put in jail, or fined, unless you were convicted of a crime by a jury. And the government can't take your house or your farm or anything that is yours, unless the government pays for it.
- If you're arrested, you have a right to have your trial pretty soon, and the government can't keep you in jail without trying you. The trial has to be public, so everyone knows what is happening. The case has to be decided by a jury of ordinary people from your area. You have the right to know what you are accused of, to see and hear the people who are witnesses against you, to have the government help you get witnesses on your side, and you have the right to a lawyer to help you.
- You also have the right to a jury when it is a civil case (a law case between two people rather than between you and the government).
- The government can't make you pay more than is reasonable in bail or in fines, and the government can't order you to have cruel or unusual punishments (like torture) even if you are convicted of a crime.
- Just because these rights are listed in the Constitution doesn't mean that you don't have other rights too.
- Anything that the Constitution doesn't say that Congress can do should be left up to the states, or to the people.