What is the purpose of the Bill of Rights?

The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect the fundamental freedoms of the people and to limit the power of the federal government, by writing specific guarantees into the Constitution itself. The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution, ratified together on December 15, 1791. They were the price of constitutional ratification. Anti-Federalists like Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Samuel Adams refused to support the proposed Constitution unless explicit protections of individual liberty were added. Federalists like Alexander Hamilton initially objected, arguing that listing specific rights might suggest others were not protected. James Madison, originally a skeptic, became convinced during the Virginia ratifying convention that adding a bill of rights was both politically necessary and substantively wise.

As a member of the First Congress, Madison drafted seventeen proposed amendments, drawing on George Mason's 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights and on suggestions submitted by state ratifying conventions. Congress narrowed the list to twelve and sent them to the states. Ten were ratified by the required three-fourths of states by December 1791.

Each amendment serves a particular protective purpose. The First protects religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition, the freedoms most essential to political liberty. The Second protects the right to keep and bear arms. The Third bars the peacetime quartering of soldiers in private homes, a remembered grievance against British rule. The Fourth protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The Fifth and Sixth set rules for criminal procedure, including grand juries, double jeopardy, self-incrimination, due process, takings, jury trials, confrontation, and counsel. The Seventh preserves civil jury trial. The Eighth bars cruel and unusual punishment, excessive bail, and excessive fines. The Ninth makes clear that listing certain rights does not exclude others retained by the people. The Tenth reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to the states or the people.

The Bill of Rights originally bound only the federal government, as the Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore in 1833. Through the doctrine of incorporation under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, beginning with Gitlow v. New York in 1925 and continuing through McDonald v. Chicago in 2010, almost all of these protections now apply equally to state and local governments.