James Madison
Once doubtful of a bill of rights, he promised one to win his House seat and keep the new government's critics on board, then drafted and steered the amendments through Congress.
Unit 3 · 1787–1791
The Bill of Rights
The Constitution's critics lost the vote and won the argument.
When the Constitution went to the states in 1787, it said almost nothing about individual rights. Many Americans were alarmed. James Madison, who first thought a list of rights was unnecessary, ended up writing one. On this page you'll follow how ten amendments got added, read their exact words, see what each one means in plain language, and test yourself.
Timeline: 1787 to 1992
- · No bill of rights
Near the end of the Convention, Mason and Gerry propose adding a bill of rights. The state delegations vote it down, and Mason refuses to sign.
- · The Anti-Federalist demand
Critics argue a powerful national government without written limits could crush free speech, jury trials, and the states. Federalists reply that the government has only the powers listed, so a list of rights is unneeded.
- · Ratify now, amend later
Massachusetts ratifies while recommending amendments, a model several later states, including New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York, follow. North Carolina refuses to ratify at all until a bill of rights is promised.
- · Madison's speech
Now a congressman from Virginia, Madison proposes amendments in the House, drawn largely from state proposals and state declarations of rights.
- · The House revises
The House approves seventeen amendments. At Roger Sherman's urging, they will be added at the end of the Constitution rather than woven into its text.
- · The Senate trims
The Senate combines and cuts the list to twelve. A House–Senate committee settles the final wording.
- · Twelve amendments go to the states
Congress sends twelve proposed amendments to the state legislatures.
- · Virginia ratifies
Virginia's approval brings ten of the twelve to the three-fourths of states needed. They become the Bill of Rights.
- Left behind · Two amendments fall short
The first proposal, setting how House seats grow with population, has never been ratified. The second, delaying any congressional pay raise until after the next election, stalls too.
- · The 27th Amendment
After a campaign that began with a college student's research paper in 1982, enough states ratify the old pay amendment. Two centuries late, it becomes the 27th Amendment.
Key People
George Mason
Main author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (adopted June 12, 1776), a model for the federal Bill of Rights. Refused to sign the Constitution without one.
Thomas Jefferson
Serving as minister to France, he pressed Madison in letters to add a bill of rights.
Patrick Henry
Fought ratification in Virginia and wanted deeper changes that would cut national power. He saw Madison's amendments as too weak.
Roger Sherman
Connecticut congressman who thought amendments unnecessary, since state constitutions already protected rights. He insisted any amendments be added at the end, not mixed into the original text.
The Ten Amendments in Plain Language
These summaries simplify. Courts have spent two centuries working out what each phrase means.
First Amendment
Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition
Congress can't set up an official religion or stop you from practicing yours, and can't cut off free speech, a free press, peaceful protest, or your right to ask the government to fix things.
Second Amendment
Militia and arms
Protects "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms," linked in its text to a "well regulated Militia." How those two parts fit together is debated (see below).
Third Amendment
Quartering soldiers
In peacetime, soldiers can't be housed in your home without your consent. In wartime, only as the law allows.
Fourth Amendment
Searches and seizures
No unreasonable searches or seizures. Warrants need probable cause and must say what and where.
Fifth Amendment
Rights of the accused
Grand juries for serious federal crimes, no being tried twice for the same crime, no forced self-incrimination, due process, and fair pay if the government takes your property.
Sixth Amendment
Fair criminal trials
A speedy, public trial by an impartial jury, the right to know the charges, to face witnesses, and to have a lawyer.
Seventh Amendment
Civil juries
A jury trial in many federal lawsuits over money or property (above twenty dollars in the original text).
Eighth Amendment
Bail and punishment
No excessive bail or fines, and no cruel and unusual punishments.
Ninth Amendment
Other rights
Listing some rights doesn't mean the people have no others.
Tenth Amendment
Powers reserved
Powers the Constitution doesn't give the national government, or deny the states, belong to the states or the people.
Primary Sources
Amendment texts follow the National Archives transcription of the Bill of Rights. The letter follows Founders Online at the National Archives.
"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."
Why it matters: Five freedoms in one sentence. Notice it starts with "Congress": at first it limited only the national government.
"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."
Why it matters: Readers have long disagreed over whether the opening clause limits the right or explains one reason for it. Read it closely and form your own view.
"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."
Why it matters: Colonists remembered British "writs of assistance," general warrants that let officers search almost anywhere.
"…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…"
Why it matters: "Taking the Fifth" means using the right not to testify against yourself.
"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
Why it matters: Madison's answer to the Federalist worry that listing rights would imply no others exist.
"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."
Why it matters: A promise to Anti-Federalists that the national government has limits.
"Let me add that a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference."
Why it matters: "General or particular" means national or state. Jefferson rejects the argument that rights are safe just because they are implied.
Incorporation and Ongoing Debates
Only Congress, at first
In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), the Supreme Court ruled the Bill of Rights limited only the national government, not the states.
The 14th Amendment
Ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, it bars states from denying "due process of law" or "the equal protection of the laws." Starting with Gitlow v. New York (1925), the Court began applying most Bill of Rights protections to the states one by one, a process called incorporation.
Contested questions
Americans still argue over how to apply these words: gun regulation, religion in public schools, police searches with new technology. In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) the Court held the Second Amendment protects an individual right, a ruling supporters praised and critics said misread the militia clause. Ask what the text says, what courts have said, and what each side values.
Talk About It
- Federalists warned that listing rights could suggest the people had no others. Did the Ninth Amendment solve that problem?
- Which amendment do you think matters most in your daily life, and why?
- Why did it take until after the Civil War for the Bill of Rights to protect people from their own states?
- Should old amendments, like the 27th, still be able to be ratified centuries later?
Test Yourself
Sources
- National Archives, The Bill of Rights: A Transcription (source of all amendment quotes; includes the twelve-article preamble).
- National Archives, Founders Online, Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 20 December 1787.
- National Archives, The Bill of Rights: What Does It Say?
- National Archives, The Virginia Declaration of Rights.
- Library of Congress, Constitution Annotated (incorporation and case law).
- National Constitution Center, Jefferson and Madison Correspondence on a Bill of Rights.
Credits: all illustrations are original SVG drawings made for Jugami.