Ten amendments make up the United States Bill of Rights, a milestone in the history commemorated by America250.
The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. They were ratified on December 15, 1791, after a national debate over whether the new federal government had sufficient protections for individual and state rights.
James Madison introduced twelve proposed amendments in Congress in 1789. The states ratified ten of them in 1791. The original proposed Article Two eventually became the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992, while the original Article One never received enough state approvals.
The amendments protect freedoms and legal safeguards including religion, speech, press, assembly, due process, and protection against unreasonable searches. The Bill of Rights is therefore ten enacted amendments, not the twelve articles originally sent to the states.