The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution.
James Madison introduced twelve proposed amendments in Congress in 1789. The states ratified ten of them by December 1791, creating the Bill of Rights. These amendments protect liberties such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press, while also addressing searches, criminal procedure, arms, juries, and powers not delegated to the federal government.
The original first and second proposed amendments were not ratified at that time. The congressional-apportionment proposal remains pending, while the congressional-pay proposal was eventually ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-Seventh Amendment. As a result, the Bill of Rights contains ten amendments even though the original package had twelve proposals.
The amendments were added to address concerns that the new Constitution did not sufficiently protect individual and state interests. They are part of the Constitution itself, not a separate charter, and apply within the broader structure of federal law and later constitutional interpretation.