What does the United States Bill of Rights comprise?

The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

The amendments were proposed by the First Congress in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791. James Madison introduced a package of twelve proposed amendments, but only ten were ratified at that time. The two proposals that were not initially adopted concerned congressional apportionment and congressional pay; the pay proposal eventually became the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992.

The Bill of Rights protects civil liberties and limits government power. Its provisions address freedoms of religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition; rules concerning weapons and soldiers; protections against unreasonable searches; rights of defendants; and limits on federal authority. The amendments were added partly to answer Anti-Federalist concerns that the new Constitution did not sufficiently protect individual rights.

The original amendments primarily restricted the federal government. Through later constitutional interpretation, many of these protections were applied to state governments as well. The Bill of Rights is therefore not a separate founding document, but an integral part of the Constitution.