Bill of Rights
TEN GUARANTEES.
235 YEARS.
Madison drafted 12. Congress sent 10. Ten were ratified on December 15, 1791. They are the reason criticizing this page is constitutionally protected.
Original Bill of Rights parchment — National Archives, Washington DC
Why It Was Needed
The original Constitution was ratified without a bill of rights — a deliberate omission. Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 84 that a bill of rights would be unnecessary and even dangerous: if you enumerate rights, you might imply the government has power to restrict unenumerated ones.
The Anti-Federalists won the argument. States like Virginia and New York ratified with the understood condition that rights amendments would follow. Madison, initially skeptical, drafted what became the Bill of Rights in the first Congress. The Ninth Amendment directly answered Hamilton's concern.
All Ten
Click any amendment to see its original text, what it means today, and how it compares globally.
Little-Known Facts
Madison drafted 12 amendments — Congress sent 10 to the states
Two were not ratified in 1791. One of them — on congressional pay raises — was finally ratified in 1992 as the 27th Amendment, 203 years after Madison proposed it.
Source: National Archives / Constitutional Amendments
Virginia's ratification on December 15, 1791 made the Bill of Rights law
Virginia was the 11th of 14 states to ratify — the 3/4 threshold. The date is now celebrated as Bill of Rights Day. Virginia was also the state that had most insisted on a bill of rights as a condition of ratification.
Source: National Archives
Originally only applied to the federal government — states added later
For most of US history, states could restrict rights the federal government could not. The 14th Amendment (1868) and a series of 20th-century Supreme Court decisions 'incorporated' the Bill of Rights against state governments one amendment at a time.
Source: McDonald v. Chicago (2010) / Gitlow v. New York (1925)
The 27th Amendment was proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992 — 203 years later
No congressional pay raise can take effect until after an intervening election. A University of Texas undergraduate student rediscovered the unratified amendment in 1982, began a campaign to ratify it, and succeeded in 1992 after Michigan became the 38th state to ratify.
Source: Congressional Research Service
""The Bill of Rights does not come from the grace of the governors. It comes from the souls of the people who refuse to be governed without consent.""