60 Fun Facts About Bill of Rights

The US Bill of Rights consists of how many amendments to the Constitution?

Congress actually sent twelve articles to the states in 1789; the last ten were ratified as the Bill of Rights.

Which representative drafted the Bill of Rights and steered it through the First Congress?

Historian Gordon Wood wrote that there might have been a Constitution without him, but certainly no Bill of Rights.

Bill of Rights Day is observed each year on which date, the anniversary of the 1791 ratification?

Franklin Roosevelt declared the day in 1941 for the 150th anniversary; one state's vote that day pushed the amendments over the three-quarters line.

The Bill of Rights answered objections raised by which group during the ratification debates?

Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams and Richard Henry Lee were among the leaders who feared a strong national government would trample individual rights.

Which founder wrote to Madison urging a bill of rights: 'Half a loaf is better than no bread'?

Jefferson was serving as minister to France during the whole debate and never attended the Constitutional Convention.

Who first suggested a bill of rights at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, only to see it defeated unanimously?

Gerry made the formal motion; Sherman argued state bills of rights were protection enough, and every state delegation voted no.

Which 1776 document, drafted by George Mason, was the greatest single influence on Madison's text?

Madison also drew on Magna Carta for jury trial and petition rights and on the English Bill of Rights for arms and cruel punishment.

Who persuaded the House to tack the amendments on at the end of the Constitution rather than weave them in?

Sherman argued the original document should 'remain inviolate', which is why amendments are numbered codicils rather than edits.

Madison ran for the First Congress against which future president, in a district gerrymandered by Patrick Henry?

He won by pledging to introduce a bill of rights, a promise he kept in June 1789.

Why did Hamilton argue in Federalist No. 84 that a separate list of guaranteed liberties was unnecessary?

He warned that listing rights might imply any right left off the list did not exist, an argument later answered by the Ninth Amendment.

How many amendments had the House sent to the Senate in August 1789, before the Senate condensed the list?

Madison had started with nine proposals; the Senate cut the seventeen to twelve, and ten passed the states at the time.

The original Article Two of the 1789 amendments was ratified in 1992 as which amendment?

It stops any congressional pay change from taking effect until after the next election, and waited more than 202 years.

What grade did Gregory Watson get on the paper that led to the 1992 congressional pay amendment?

The university formally changed the grade to an A+ in 2017, 35 years later.

The original Article One of the twelve 1789 amendments, never ratified, dealt with what?

It came within one state of ratification twice before 1803; with 50 states it would need 27 more to ratify.

Which First Amendment freedom is listed first in its text?

The order is establishment of religion, free exercise, speech, press, assembly and petition.

How many separate freedoms does the First Amendment protect?

Religion, speech, press, assembly and petition; courts have added an implied freedom of association.

Which founder's correspondence gave the Supreme Court the phrase 'a wall of separation between church and State'?

The words are not in the First Amendment itself; the Court borrowed them in Everson v. Board of Education.

Which 1969 Supreme Court case upheld students' right to wear black armbands in protest?

Its 'substantial disruption' test is still used to judge school speech cases.

The Second Amendment opens with a clause about the necessity of what?

The right to keep and bear arms had earlier been written into the English Bill of Rights of 1689, though there it applied only to Protestants.

Which 2008 Supreme Court case held the Second Amendment protects an individual right to bear arms?

McDonald v. Chicago extended the same limit to state and local governments two years later.

The Third Amendment forbids the government from doing what in peacetime without the owner's consent?

It answered the British Quartering Acts and has never been the main basis of a Supreme Court decision.

The Third Amendment case Engblom v. Carey (1982) arose when New York housed Guard troops where?

The court held that guardsmen count as soldiers under the amendment and that it applies to the states.

The Fourth Amendment requires warrants to be supported by what?

It was a reaction to the British writ of assistance, a general search warrant that let officers rummage at will.

The Fourth Amendment is the basis for which doctrine barring illegally obtained evidence from trials?

Mapp v. Ohio applied it to the states in 1961 after Cleveland police waved a fake warrant at Dollree Mapp.

'Taking the Fifth' refers to which protection in the Fifth Amendment?

The same amendment also guarantees due process and bans trying someone twice for the same offence.

Which 1966 case requires police to tell suspects of their rights before interrogation?

Ernesto Miranda confessed after two hours of questioning without ever being told he could have a lawyer.

Under the Fifth Amendment, private property may be taken for public use only with what?

This is the constitutional basis of eminent domain.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees a criminal defendant a trial that is what?

It also promises an impartial jury, notice of the charges, confrontation of witnesses and the assistance of counsel.

How was the petition that began Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) written?

Clarence Gideon had been convicted of burgling a Panama City pool room after a judge refused to appoint him counsel.

The Seventh Amendment guarantees a civil jury trial when the value in dispute exceeds what amount?

The figure has never been updated for inflation, and this is one of the few amendments never applied to the states.

The Eighth Amendment forbids excessive bail, excessive fines and what else?

The wording was lifted almost verbatim from the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

The Ninth Amendment says listing certain rights shall not be construed to do what?

Madison included it to answer the fear that any right left off the list would be treated as non-existent.

Which 1965 case, striking down a state contraceptive ban, made the Ninth Amendment prominent?

Several justices cited it to support a right of marital privacy, later the foundation of Roe v. Wade.

The Tenth Amendment reserves powers not delegated to the federal government to whom?

It grants nothing new; it simply restates the principle of federalism.

As written in 1791, the Bill of Rights restrained whom?

Madison's proposal to bind the states was cut by the Senate; the Fourteenth Amendment later opened the door.

What is applying the Bill of Rights to the states via the Fourteenth Amendment called?

It began with the free speech clause in Gitlow v. New York in 1925 and by the 2020s had reached almost every protection.

How many handwritten copies of the Bill of Rights did George Washington have made?

One went to Congress and one to each of the thirteen states; the New York copy is thought to have burned in 1911.

Where is one of the original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights on permanent public display?

The Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom was rededicated on September 17, 2003, after fifty years of display.

Which state refused to ratify the Bill of Rights in the 1790s, only doing so in 1939?

Massachusetts and Connecticut also failed to finish the job until the 1939 sesquicentennial.

Which was the first state to ratify the amendments, on November 20, 1789?

Virginia's ratification more than two years later was the one that completed the process.

Which state's December 1791 ratification gave the Bill of Rights its three-quarters majority?

Vermont had joined the Union that March, so eleven of fourteen states were required.

Which original state sent no delegates to the Constitutional Convention?

Along with North Carolina it also held out on ratifying the Constitution until amendments were promised.

Which two heroes broke Massachusetts' ratifying deadlock by agreeing to ratify on condition amendments be proposed?

The convention had earlier erupted into a fistfight when Gerry was not allowed to speak.

Which 1215 English charter inspired the Bill of Rights' jury trial and petition guarantees?

Anti-Federalists liked to note that Magna Carta was extracted from King John by barons with swords in hand.

The English Bill of Rights, a model for the American one, was passed in which year?

It followed the Glorious Revolution and made William and Mary accept limits on the Crown.

Where did the First Congress meet when Madison introduced his amendments in 1789?

Congress had moved to Philadelphia by the time Washington told it in January 1792 that ratification was complete.

According to the record, the Supreme Court did not make an important free-speech decision until which year?

Historians say most Americans promptly forgot the first ten amendments for their first 150 years.

What became of Madison's amendment protecting conscience, press and jury trial against the states?

Madison thought it the most valuable amendment of all; the states got that protection only after the Civil War.

In 1873 Ohio ratified the long-dormant amendment on legislators' salaries as a protest against what?

Wyoming followed in 1978, and Gregory Watson's letter campaign finished the job in 1992.

Which president first proclaimed Bill of Rights Day, in 1941?

The proclamation came in 1941, days after Pearl Harbor, for the 150th anniversary.

For its 1991 bicentennial, which state's copy of the Bill of Rights toured all fifty state capitals?

Virginia was, fittingly, the state whose vote had completed ratification 200 years earlier.

How many times has the Third Amendment been the primary basis of a Supreme Court decision?

The ban on peacetime quartering of soldiers is so rarely litigated that it has been nicknamed the Constitution's 'runt piglet'.

Three holdout states finally ratified the Bill of Rights in 1939 to mark which anniversary?

Massachusetts, Georgia and Connecticut had all failed to complete ratification in the 1790s and acted during the sesquicentennial commemoration.

Which state's original copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen by a Union soldier and recovered in a 2003 FBI sting?

Of Washington's fourteen handwritten copies, those for New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia went missing; New York's likely burned in 1911.

What is unusual about the Seventh Amendment's civil jury guarantee compared with most of the Bill of Rights?

The Supreme Court said so as early as Walker v. Sauvinet in 1875, though almost every state guarantees civil juries in its own constitution.

In Colgrove v. Battin (1973), the Supreme Court held a civil jury of how many members satisfies the Seventh Amendment?

The Court reasoned that the amendment guarantees a jury of sufficient size, not necessarily the traditional twelve.

In the 1965 contraception case, which justice's concurrence said the Ninth Amendment alone justified a right to privacy?

The amendment had rarely been mentioned by the Court before the second half of the 20th century.

Which Massachusetts delegate made the formal motion for a bill of rights at the 1787 convention?

The motion came five days before the convention ended and was quickly rejected; he later refused to sign the Constitution and wrote the most popular Anti-Federalist tract.

Justice Robert Jackson cited the Third Amendment as a check on wartime executive power in which 1952 case?

The steel-seizure case produced seven separate opinions; Jackson's has become the standard framework for judging presidential power.

Which criminal justice writer dubbed the Third Amendment the Constitution's 'runt piglet'?

A 2015 federal Third Amendment ruling held it does not even apply to municipal police.