The Bill of Rights
The first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United Stateswhich establishes basic American civil liberties that the government cannotviolate is known as the Bill of Rights (Encarta pp). Ratified by thestates in 1791, three years after the Constitution was ratified, the Billof Rights originally applied only to the federal government, however, theSupreme Court, in a series of 20th century cases, decided that most of itsprovisions apply to the states as well (Encarta pp). Throughout the lasttwo centuries, the Bill of Rights has been used by many countries as amodel for defining civil liberties in their own constitutions (Encarta pp). Although memories of civil rights violations during the colonialperiod were still vivid in 1789 as George Washington was inaugurated asAmerica's first president, the draft constitution that was submitted to thestates for ratification included relatively few basic rights (Early pp).The omission of individual liberties in the proposed constitution alarmedmany prominent Americans, including author of the Virginia Bill of Rights,George Mason, who refused to sign the document, as did Elbridge Gerry ofMassachusetts (Early pp). Thomas Jefferson, who was the
This restates a fundamental constitutional rule: "If a particular power wasnot assigned to the federal government by the Constitution itself, then thestates may exercise the power, unless the Constitution also prohibits thestates from exercising it. Under this amendment the courts must allow most criminal defendants out ofjail before their trial if the defendants put up a reasonable bail, and ifone is convicted of a crime, the government cannot impose unreasonablefines or inflict inhumane punishments. When William of Orange and his wife Mary, daughterof deposed King James II, were crowned King and Queen of England on April11, 1689, they were required to swear that they would obey the laws ofParliament (1689 pp). The Tenth Amendment: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people" (Encarta pp). This amendment, which does not apply to the states, guarantees the right toa jury in some types of federal civil (non-criminal) trials (Encarta pp). This amendment prohibits law enforcement and other government officialsfrom searching homes or offices or seizing property without reasonablegrounds to believe that a crime has been committed (Encarta pp). Asyet, Supreme Court decisions have not resolved the debate, however thecourts have held that this amendment does not preclude certain governmentregulations on gun ownership, such as laws prohibiting ownership offirearms by felons (Encarta pp). The First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (Encarta pp). In mostcases, police must get a written search warrant from a judge, detailingwhere they will search and what they expect to find before they can searcha home or office (Encarta pp). This amendment forbids the government from quartering soldiers in privatehomes during peacetime without the owner's permission, and during wartimeonly according to law (Encarta pp). These rights came from several centuries of Englishlegal tradition, recorded in documents such as the Magna Carta of 1215, the1628 Petition of Right, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, from which theAmerican Bill of Rights took its name (Encarta pp).
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