BILL OF
RIGHTS - Refers
to the first ten amendments to the Constitution (ratified December 15, 1791),
which guarantee civil liberties against infringement by Congress and the
government. Among the rights therein
assured are freedom of speech, press, religion, and association (1st); the
right to bear arms (2d); guarantees against unreasonable searches and seizures
(4th); grand jury indictment and guarantee of due process (5th); the right to a
speedy trial and trial by jury (6th); prohibition of cruel and unusual
punishment and excessive bail (8th); and a guarantee that citizens and states
retain rights and privileges not expressly limited in the Constitution (9th
& 10th).
The amendments
originally guarded only against infringement by the federal government. Since then courts have applied them against
states as well, through the 14th Amendment.
More precisely, until the 14th Amendment was ratified July 9, 1868,
there was virtually no call on the Bill of Rights by American citizens. The first significant Supreme Court
case to cite the Bill of Rights as a potential protection of individual rights
was Twining v. New Jersey
(1908). In the twentieth century
successful appeals to the Bill of Rights mushroomed, becoming a major source of
litigation, with first amendment cases outstripping all others. While the rest
of the Constitution describes what government can do and how it
may do it, the Bill of Rights describe what government must not do. Citizens enforce the Bill of Rights through
appeals to the courts. In general, therefore,
a bill of rights is a fundamental statement of principles governing the
relations between citizens and the state, founded in ideas derived from the
concept of natural rights, such as that elaborated in the Declaration of
Independence.
It is important
to remember that the Bill of Rights (originally drafted by James Madison) was
added to the Constitution after it had been ratified and the government
established. Opponents to the
Constitution thought the document inadequate without a Bill of Rights, while
proponents insisted that the Constitution itself was the main limitation on
government. President George
Washington, in his first inaugural address, asked the new Congress in 1789 to
adopt a Bill of Rights so that all citizens would feel a part of the new
nation.[1] The debates in Congress, particularly the House of Representatives,
stressed the need to “quiet the mind of the people.”[2] Twelve amendments were sent to the states, one at first enlarging
and then limiting the number of representative in Congress, and a second,
limiting the salaries of members of Congress.
Only ten were ratified by the states.
Two states, North Carolina and Rhode Island, had not joined the original
government because they desired a Bill of Rights. As soon as the amendments were sent out these states proceeded to
ratify and join the union.
[1] The “First Inaugural” is reprinted with Washington’s Papers in numerous editions and is readily available in George Washington: A Collection, ed. by W. B. Allen (Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1988), p. 462.
[2] James Madison, Debates in the House of Representatives, June 8, 1789. Besides the Annals of the Congress, this and other speeches are reprinted in Creating the Bill of Rights, ed. by Helen E. Veit, Kenneth R. Bowling, and Charlene Bangs Bickford (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1991). See pp. 63 & 77.