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The United States Bill of Rights

The Usa Bill of Rights: the offset ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

What is the Nib of Rights?

After the leaders of the new U.s.a. wrote the Constitution, they had to get the xiii states to hold to it. Some of us didn't want to agree unless they could add some specific rights for individual people.

The Constitution
The Declaration of Independence
Later Constitutional Amendments
More than American History

So in 1791 the United States added ten new rights to the Constitution. They got the idea for some of these rights from the Magna Carta and the British Bill of Rights. Other ideas came from the Iroquois Confederacy and from the French Proclamation of the Rights of Man.

We telephone call this list of rights the Bill of Rights. It'south the commencement ten amendments to the U.s. Constitution.

These are the ten individual rights that are in the Pecker of Rights, in simpler words:

  1. The United states of america Congress can't make any constabulary almost your religion.They can't terminate you lot from practicing your religion. They can't keep you from saying whatsoever you want. They tin't cease you lot frompublishing whatever you want (similar in a paper or a volume). And Congress can't stop you from meeting peacefully for a demonstration, or from complaining about how the regime does something.
  2. Congress can't end people from having and carrying weapons, because we demand to be able to defend ourselves.
  3. You don't take to let soldiers live in your house, except if there is a war. Even then, you just have to if the United States Congress has passed a law about it.
  4. Nobody from the government can search your body, or your house, or your papers and things, unless they can evidence to a guess that they have a good reason to think you accept committed a crime.
  5. You can't be tried for any serious crime without a Grand Jury meeting offset to decide whether at that place's enough testify for a trial. And if the jury decides you are innocent, the regime tin't attempt once more with another jury. Yous don't have to say anything at your trial. Y'all can't be killed, or put in jail, or fined, unless you were bedevilled of a crime by a jury. And the government tin can't take your house or your farm or anything that is yours, unless the government pays for information technology.
  6. If you're arrested, you accept a right to have your trial pretty soon, and the authorities can't keep you lot in jail without trying yous. The trial has to be public, so everyone knows what is happening. The case has to exist decided past a jury of ordinary people from your area. You have the right to know what you are accused of. You accept the right to encounter and hear the people who are witnesses against you. The government has to aid y'all find the witnesses on your side. And the government has to get a lawyer to help you.
  7. You lot likewise accept the right to a jury when it is a ceremonious example. (That'southward a law case between two people rather than betwixt yous and the government).
  8. The government tin't make you lot pay more than is reasonable in bond (to stay out of jail while you're waiting for your trial) or in fines. And the authorities tin can't club you to have cruel or unusual punishments (like torture) even if you are bedevilled of a criminal offence.
  9. Only because these rights are listed in the Constitution doesn't mean that you lot don't take other rights too.
  10. Anything that the Constitution doesn't say that Congress can do should be left upward to united states, or to the people.

Looking for a second source to check that these are right? The ACLU has a good 1.

And here is the original wording, from the Us government.

Where did the ideas in the Bill of Rights come up from?

The people who wrote these first 10 amendments to the Constitution had reasons for writing them. Information technology's non always clear to united states now what those reasons were. Hither are some explanations:

The background of the First Amendment

Freedom of religion

Catholic beating a Protestant in England (Foxe, about 1550 AD)

Catholic chirapsia a Protestant in England (Foxe, almost 1550 AD)

Freedom of religion comes first because it was the about basic for the Constitution's writers. Many of their grandfathers or grandmothers were Puritans or Quakers who had been jailed or killed in England for their religion. Their children left England for America in order to get away from religious persecution and exist able to worship God still they wanted.

The history of freedom of religion

This wasn't the beginning time people had tried to write laws near freedom of religion. The Iranian king of kings, Cyrus the Smashing, may have granted freedom of faith to the Farsi Empire on the Cyrus Cylinder in 539 BC. The Roman Emperor Constantine granted liberty of religion to Christians in 313 AD, with the Edict of Milan. Henry IV in France granted liberty of religion to Protestants in 1598, with the Edict of Nantes.

The history of religious persecution

But other rulers had taken that freedom abroad. The Roman emperor Diocletian killed Christians about 300 AD. The Iranian ruler Khosrau killed many Mazdakites around 500 Ad. Ferdinand and Isabella threw the Jews out of Kingdom of spain and Portugal in the 1400s Advertisement. Prc'south Emperor Wuzong killed thousands of Buddhists about 850 AD. Queen Mary killed many Protestants in England in the 1500s, and and then Queen Elizabeth killed many Catholics. Louis XIV revoked (took dorsum) the Edict of Nantes in 1685, because he wanted everyone in France to accept the aforementioned religion.

The men who wrote the Pecker of Rights wanted to make it very, very hard to alter this constabulary.

Liberty of speech and of the press

A Quaker meeting in the 1700s

A Quaker meeting in the 1700s

Freedom of spoken language had a much shorter history before the Constitution. In 1689, England's Neb of Rights said that anyone could say whatever they thought in meetings of Parliament (though not outside of Parliament!). In 1789, the French Proclamation of the Rights of Man pushed this further, saying that everybody had the correct to say, write, and print freely whatsoever they wanted, wherever they wanted, unless there was a specific constabulary preventing it.

Freedom of Associates

The Founders were thinking of the trial of William Penn in 1670, when Penn was charged with illegal associates for leading a religious coming together of Quakers in London. A jury acquitted Penn, but the Founders wanted to protect religious liberty and the right to organize in all kinds of means.

(More than nearly the Quakers)

Liberty of Petition

The English Beak of Rights, in 1689, said that people had the correct to petition the Rex of England when they wanted something changed. The French Declaration of the Rights of Human, in 1789, said that people had the right to fight dorsum against oppression.

The groundwork of the Second Amendment

There was a long tradition in English law that gratuitous people had a right to keep and bear arms (weapons). The English Beak of Rights, in 1689, as well insisted on this right, considering the Rex had recently taken the right away from Protestants. So for them, and for the Framers, this was a question of treating all religions as. The Framers also saw the Second Amendment equally a way for the states to defend themselves confronting the power of the federal regime.

The background of the Third Amendment

The British government had been commanding Americans to let soldiers live in their houses, just to have somewhere to put them. Americans hated that, and so they made a rule against it. The first rule like this one had been in the British Petition of Correct, in 1628. At that place'south likewise a like rule in the British Beak of Rights from 1689 that the regime can't keep a continuing army when there's no war unless Parliament authorizes it.

The groundwork of the 4th Subpoena

The Framers had iii recent court cases in mind when they wrote the Quaternary Amendment.

The groundwork of the Fifth Amendment

The right to keep your property

The Cyrus Cylinder, in 539 BC, assured people in the Persian Empire that Cyrus would not let anyone have anyone's things or their country by forcefulness or without paying for them. The French Declaration of the Rights of Human being says that also.

The right not to be punished unless you have been bedevilled of a criminal offence

In 1628, the British Petition of Right said that you lot could non be fined unless you lot were convicted of a crime. The Petition of Right and the British Habeas Corpus act of 1679 both said that nobody could be arrested or put in jail unless they were accused of a crime. The French Announcement of the Rights of Man said the aforementioned affair. And then the Fifth Amendment says those things besides.

The groundwork of the Sixth Amendment

This one is as well rooted in the British Petition of Right from 1628.

The background of the Seventh Amendment

The British Petition of Right from 1628.

The background of the Eighth Amendment

The 8th Amendment is pretty much straight out of the British Bill of Rights from 1689. That also said yous couldn't charge too much bond, or make people pay huge fines, or punish people in vicious or unusual means.

The background of the Ninth Subpoena

The groundwork of the Tenth Amendment

The French Declaration of the Rights of Man says that everything is allowed unless there is a specific law preventing it.

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How does the Bill of Rights work today?

Today, the The states Supreme Courtroom interprets the Bill of Rights and tells us how we should understand it in specific cases. Sometimes those interpretations modify, because our ideas virtually what is off-white change over time, and new problems come up up that nobody ever thought of before. Here are some examples of recent arguments over the Bill of Rights.

Freedom of religion: People have been arguing about whether schools can encourage children to pray in school. We have to balance the freedom of teachers and coaches – and of the students themselves – to talk most religion, with the freedom of other students, teachers, and coaches not to exist forced into whatever religious activity they didn't choose.

(Read the ACLU's commodity most schoolhouse prayer)

Freedom of speech: People have been arguing about whether people have a right to speak in public if their spoken communication is hateful. What if they are saying that some people are not equally proficient as other people? What if they are saying that some people should be enslaved, or that they should exist killed? Does freedom of speech extend to them, too? And does it restrict their liberty of speech if public universities pass up to let them speak on campus, fifty-fifty if they could speak freely in other places?

(Read the AAUP's article nigh freedom of speech on campus)

Freedom of assembly: People have been arguing nearly whether crowds of people can protest whenever they want, or but if they have a permit. Can the government limit permits then that protests can but accept place far away from the result they are protesting? Can it limit permits so that protests can only accept place inside alpine chain-link fences? What if the protest blocks traffic, or goes on for weeks? What if the protesters are children?

Liberty to petition: A recent instance of the freedom to petition is that the President blocked people from his Twitter business relationship. A judge said he had to unblock those people, because they had a right to know what he was proverb, and a right to be able to write to the President, and to the people who were writing to him, equally with other people.

The right to carry artillery: People have been discussing laws meant to go along people from getting guns. If fewer people had guns, we'd probably accept fewer school shootings and but generally fewer people being shot. On the other hand, many people feel safer with a gun in their business firm, and want to keep their guns.

Searching people: Does the government need a warrant to search your cellphone and read your text messages? Can they use your cellphone records to get a list of all the places y'all have been going to and all the people you have chosen? Can they get your banking company account information? Is that what the Fourth Subpoena intended?

Excessive bail: Can the regime proceed people in jail while they're waiting for their trial only because they are besides poor to pay bail? Isn't that pretty hard on poor people, while rich people get to stay domicile? Information technology makes people lose their jobs, and their kids, just from being accused of a offense, without being convicted. How does that go with "innocent until proven guilty"?

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What basic rights are Not in the Bill of Rights?

The men who wrote the Neb of Rights left out some things they must accept thought virtually putting in, that other people had put into earlier lists of rights, or that people had asked for.

The rights of women

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Denizen applied only to men. Abigail Adams and other women had asked to accept the rights of women defined in the Constitution. But the Neb of Rights did non make women equal citizens with men.

The right to control your own body

The Cyrus Cylinder says that it is incorrect to concord another person as a slave, and it bans any kind of unpaid, forced labor. The French Declaration of the Rights of Human says that all men are born complimentary, and have a correct to liberty; it says that the law has to utilise the same way to everybody. But the United states' Bill of Rights allowed Americans to enslave other people. Freedom had to wait for the Fourteenth Amendment.

The correct to progressive taxation

The Declaration of the Rights of Man said that everybody should pay taxes, simply poor people should pay less and rich people should pay more than. And that people had the right to know what their taxes were paying for, and how much was beingness nerveless.

The right to live wherever y'all want

The Cyrus Cylinder says that people tin live and work wherever they desire without special permission.

More recent Constitutional Amendments
More virtually the Constitution

Bibliography and further reading about the The states Constitution and the Bill of Rights:

(And thanks to Timothy Phillips at Winslow Township High School for a suggested phrasing for the beginning amendment!)

Constitution History
The Proclamation of Independence
The Iroquois
The Revolutionary State of war
American History
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