Ten Amendments and the Court That Reads Them
1When the Constitution went to the states in 1787, many Antifederalists objected that it had no bill of rights. Several states ratified it while asking for amendments to protect individual rights. In June 1789, James Madison, a member of the new House of Representatives from Virginia, proposed a list of amendments.
2Congress narrowed the list. In August 1789 the House approved 17 amendments. The Senate combined and cut some of them, and in September Congress sent 12 to the states. An amendment becomes part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify it. By December 15, 1791, ten had been ratified; they are known as the Bill of Rights. One of the two left behind, about pay for members of Congress, was finally ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment.
3The First Amendment protects freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly and petition. The Fourth bans unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants based on probable cause. The Fifth says no person may be forced to be a witness against himself or lose life, liberty or property without due process of law. The Sixth promises a speedy, public trial by jury and the help of a lawyer. The Eighth bans excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishments.
4Words on paper still have to be interpreted. In Marbury v. Madison (1803), Chief Justice John Marshall wrote, "It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is." The Court struck down part of a law passed by Congress because it conflicted with the Constitution. The courts' power to decide whether a law or government action follows the Constitution is called judicial review.
5At first, the Court read the Bill of Rights narrowly. In Barron v. Baltimore (1833), a wharf owner said city work had ruined his wharf, and he asked to be paid under the Fifth Amendment. The Court ruled that the Bill of Rights limited the national government, not the states or their cities.
6That changed after the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, says no state may "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." In the 1900s, the Court used these words to apply most of the Bill of Rights to the states, one case at a time.