TheBill of Rights
Protecting Our FreedomThen and Now
To the students, teachers, and parents of Thurgood MarshallElementary School, Gaithersburg, MarylandThanks for your encouragement and support!
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank my colleague, Dr. Bruce Ragsdale, for reviewing this book at several stages and providing valuable suggestions. My wife, Joan, and daughters, Marissa and Isabel, read various versions with critical eyes and offered sound advice. Any errors that may appear in the text are entirely mine.
Copyright © 2008 by Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner.
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Peterson’s Publishing, LLC
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ISBN: 978-0-7641-4021-1
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 2008004774
Contents
Federalism, Separation of Powers, Checks and Balances, and Other Compromises
First Amendment—Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Assembly, and Freedom to Petition
Second Amendment—Right to Keep and Bear Arms
Third Amendment—Right Not to Quarter Soldiers
Fourth Amendment—Protection from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
Fifth Amendment—Guarantees Due Process of Law and Protection from Testifying Against Yourself
Sixth Amendment—Right to Fair, Speedy, Public Trial by Jury
Seventh Amendment—Right to Jury Trial in Cases That Are Not Crimes
Eighth Amendment—Right to Bail and No Cruel or Unusual Punishments
Ninth Amendment—Rights of the People
Tenth Amendment—Rights of the States
Introduction
Have you ever heard someone say, “It’s a free country?” Do you know what that means?
The people of the United States have many freedoms, which are called rights. We have the right to protest the government’s decisions and to write articles and go on television to complain about the government. We have the right to practice any religion—or no religion—as we choose. The government cannot just arrest us and throw us in jail for no reason. We have the right to know what crime the government says we committed and to have a fair trial before the government can put us in jail.
All of these rights are protected by the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is part of the Constitution of the United States. But the Bill of Rights was not in the original Constitution. Many of the people who wrote the Constitution did not think the Bill of Rights was necessary. Why is the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, how did it get there, and what do these rights mean? Let’s find out.
A Confederation of States
In 1783, thirteen British colonies in North America won their independence from Great Britain. Gaining their independence required a long and costly war, called the Revolutionary War or the War of Independence. But the colonies, which were now called states because they were independent, had more problems ahead of them: How would they survive on their own? Would they continue to do business with England and with other countries in Europe? Would they be safe—from French and Spanish settlements nearby, from Native Americans, from pirates, from each other—without the British army and navy to protect them? What kind of government would they form for their new country?
At first, leaders of the states organized their states into a confederation, which is another word for league. The confederation was not very well organized, however. Each state ran like a separate country with its own rules. The confederation had very few rules to make the states work together. Each state had its own type of money and its own army called a militia. Each militia, however, only protected its own state. The confederation had no power to raise money for an army and a navy to protect all of the states. The leaders called the confederation the “United States,” but the states were not really united yet as one nation.