Constitution of the United States: The Bill of Rights

The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of worship, of speech, of the press, of assembly, and of petition to the government for redress of grievances. This amendment has been the center of controversy in recent years in the areas of free speech and religion. The Supreme Court has held that freedom of speech does not include the right to refuse to testify before a Congressional investigating committee and that most organized prayer in the public schools violates the First Amendment.

The right to keep and bear arms—adopted with reference to state militias but interpreted (2008) by the Supreme Court as essentially an individual right—is guaranteed by the Second Amendment, while freedom from quartering soldiers in a house without the owner's consent is guaranteed by the Third Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects people against unreasonable search and seizure, a safeguard only more recently extended to the states.

The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be held for “a capital or otherwise infamous crime” without indictment, be twice put in “jeopardy of life or limb” for the same offense, be compelled to testify against himself, or “be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” The privilege against self-incrimination has been the center of a great deal of controversy as a result of the growth of Congressional investigations. The phrase “due process of law,” which appears in the Fifth Amendment, is also included in the Fourteenth Amendment. As a result there has been much debate as to whether both amendments guarantee the same rights. Those in favor of what is termed fixed due process claim that all the safeguards applied against the federal government should be also applied against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. The supporters of the concept of flexible due process are only willing to impose those guarantees on the states that “are implicit in the concept of ordered liberty.”

The Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of speedy and public trial by an impartial jury in all criminal proceedings, while the Seventh Amendment guarantees the right of trial by jury in almost all common-law suits. Excessive bail, fines and “cruel and unusual” punishment are prohibited by the Eighth Amendment. The Ninth Amendment states that “The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

By the Tenth Amendment “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.” Powers reserved to the states are often termed “residual powers.” This amendment, like the commerce clause, has been a battleground in the struggle over states' rights and federal supremacy.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Other Amendments
• The Bill of Rights
• The Amendments
• 5: Amending the Constitution
• 4: The States
• 3: The Judiciary
• 2: The Executive Branch
• 1: Congress
• The Articles
• The Preamble
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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