The Reading Room

The text

The Bill of Rights

James Madison·1791·New York

The first ten amendments, and they exist because a group of skeptics refused to ratify without them. The Anti-Federalists feared a central government that did not say, in writing, what it could not do, and they won the argument. What to notice: how much of daily American liberty lives in these few hundred words, the freedom to speak and publish and worship and assemble, the protection against unreasonable search, the right to counsel and to a fair trial. The Constitution built the machine. The Bill of Rights drew the lines the machine may not cross.

Amendment I. 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.

Amendment II. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Amendment VII. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X. 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.


Notes

1

Congress shall make no law

The First Amendment opens not with a grant but with a prohibition. It does not give the freedom of speech, it forbids the government from taking it, treating the freedom as already the people's and the government as the thing to be restrained. The whole American approach to rights is in that grammar.

2

the right of the people peaceably to assemble

The freedom to gather, named alongside speech and press as a single connected liberty. A republic runs on people coming together, and the founders protected the gathering itself. The recurring meeting is a constitutional right, not only a civic habit.

3

unreasonable searches and seizures

The Fourth Amendment guards the private world against the government's reach, born of the founders' fury at general warrants that let officials search anyone for anything. The line between a person's private life and the state's power runs here.

4

nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

Due process: the promise that the government must follow fair procedures before it takes what is yours, including your freedom. It is the quiet engine of the Courts lens, the guarantee that power must go through the law to reach a person, and Gideon's Trumpet is the story of that promise reaching one.


Source: National Archives transcription (archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript)