Answer(s)
• (The basic) rights of Americans
• (The basic) rights of people living in the United States
The first ten amendments to the Constitution that protect individual freedoms.
The right to express opinions without government punishment.
The right to gather peacefully in groups.
The right to practice any religion or no religion at all.
A legal document signed by a judge allowing police to search or arrest.
Basic freedoms that every person should have.
DOUGLAS GINSBURG, Federal Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit:
The Bill of Rights protects some of our most important liberties. You can’t get through a day without exercising at least one of them: Freedom of speech. Freedom of assembly. Freedom to worship as you choose – or choosing not to worship at all. Just sitting at home, you’re enjoying the freedom from police entering without a warrant issued by a court.
Listing rights may seem logical. But the Constitution was issued without the Bill of Rights. The Framers even debated whether we needed one.
On one side was Thomas Jefferson – author of the Declaration of Independence. When a copy of the new Constitution reached Jefferson in Paris, where he was serving as our ambassador to France, he was alarmed that the Constitution didn’t list the rights of the people. On the other side, James Madison, chief author of the Constitution. He feared that by drafting a list of rights, any rights omitted would seem to be unprotected. Madison had a point. The Constitution doesn’t spell out our right to travel or teach our children as we see fit. Or a thousand other things.
But without a guarantee of our fundamental rights, not enough states would have voted to adopt the Constitution. So, what was once controversial is now a bedrock principle of our republic: the Bill of Rights.
