The first ten amendments were ratified as the Bill of Rights on December 15, 1791, a constitutional milestone marked by America250.
The Bill of Rights was created in response to concerns raised during the debate over the Constitution. Anti-Federalists feared that the new national government might threaten individual liberties, so James Madison proposed amendments addressing those objections.
Congress approved 12 proposed amendments on September 25, 1789, and sent them to the states. Articles Three through Twelve of that proposal were ratified by the required number of states on December 15, 1791. They became Amendments One through Ten. The original proposed Article Two was eventually ratified as the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992, while the original Article One remains unratified.
The Bill of Rights protects freedoms including religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. It also addresses criminal procedure, search and seizure, due process, jury trials, and the relationship between federal power and reserved powers.