Bill of Rights
A bill of rights is a list of fundamental rights guaranteed by citizens. The purpose of a bill of rights is to protect the rights of individuals from infringement by public officials and private citizens.
Bills of rights may or may not be fixed. The country's legislature cannot amend or revoke the strengthened bill of rights under normal procedure. It requires a supermajority or referendum. It is often part of the country's Constitution. Therefore, they are subject to special application procedures for constitutional amendments.
The history of legal charters asserting certain rights for particular groups dates back to the Middle Ages and earlier times. One example of a legal charter is the Magna Carta. It is an English agreement between the King and his barons in 1215. There was renewed interest in the Magna Carta during the early modern period. Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship in English law, arguing that Englishmen have historically enjoyed such rights. The Petition of Rights 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679, and the Bill of Rights 1689 established certain legal rights. The British Bill of Rights influenced the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776. It affected the United States Declaration of Independence that year. In 1789, the United States' Constitution was ratified. Later the United States Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.
Amendments of the United States Constitution:
The conventions of some States have expressed the will to avoid misinterpretation or abuse of their powers at the time of the adoption of the constitution. To add further declaratory and restrictive clauses: E as an extension of the scope of application of the trusted public in the government, it will best ensure its institution's beneficial purposes.
Approved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, meeting in Congress, two-thirds of both Houses agree that the following articles are proposed to the Legislatures of the various States as amendments to the United States Constitution, all or some of them these articles, when ratified by three-quarters of said legislatures, are valid for all purposes, as part of the said Constitution; that means articles supplementing and amending the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress and ratified by the legislators of the various States, by article 5 of the original Constitution.
Note: the following text is a transcript of the first ten constitutional amendments in their original form. These amendments were ratified on December 15, 1791, and the so-called 'Charter of Rights was formed.
AMENDMENT I
Congress must not legislate on respect for a religious institution, prohibit its free exercise, limit freedom of speech or the press, or the right of the people to assemble peacefully and ask the government to remedy the grievances.
AMENDMENT II
A well-regulated militia, necessary for the security of a free state, must not violate the people's right to own and bear arms.
AMENDMENT III
No soldier may be lodged in a house in peace without the owner's consent, nor in time of war, but the manner prescribed by law.
AMENDMENT IV
The right of persons to the security of their persons, their homes, their papers, and their property against unreasonable searches and seizures must not be violated, and no warrant of arrest must be issued, except for probable cause, supported by an oath or an acknowledgment and in particular a description of the place.
AMENDMENT V
No person shall be tried for a capital crime or any other heinous crime except on trial or indictment by a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or sea forces or the militia when they are produced during the war in service. Or public emergency; no one may be put twice in danger of death or physical integrity for the same crime; nor may he be compelled in criminal proceedings to testify against himself, nor be deprived of his life, liberty, or property without due process; nor can private property be taken for public use without just compensation.
AMENDMENT VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused has the right to a timely and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district where the crime is alleged to have been committed. Charges to be confronted with prosecution witnesses
AMENDMENT VII
In any action at common law where the amount in dispute exceeds twenty dollars, the right to a jury trial shall be preserved, and no fact heard by a jury shall be considered by a court of the United States other than under the rules of the common law.
AMENDMENT VIII
Excessive deposits cannot be requested, excessive fines imposed, or cruel and unusual punishment imposed.
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration of certain rights in the Constitution should not be interpreted as the denial or denigration of others due to the people.
AMENDMENT X
Powers not conferred on the United States by the Constitution or prohibited to the states are reserved for the states or the people, as the case may be.
Recent efforts by some state legislatures and other groups to amend the US Constitution have raised questions about the process. When writing the Constitution, the Founding Fathers thought that changing the founding document and the nation's principles should not be easy.
