The Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the US Constitution. These amendments were proposed following debates over ratifying the original Constitution to address criticisms and add specific protections for personal freedoms and rights. While Madison wanted them incorporated into the main document, they were instead proposed as supplemental additions. The Bill of Rights applies limitations on government power and reserves non-granted powers to the states and people. It was not part of the original 1787 Constitution.

1. Explain bill of rights. Is bill of right part
of original American Constitution?

2. Introduction
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a
charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the
citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights
against infringement from public officials and private citizens.
Bills of rights may be entrenched or unentrenched. An
entrenched bill of rights cannot be amended or repealed by a
country's legislature through regular procedure, instead
requiring a supermajority or referendum; often it is part of a
country's constitution, and therefore subject to special
procedures applicable to constitutional amendments. A bill of
rights that is not entrenched is a normal statute law and as such
can be modified or repealed by the legislature at will.

3. History
The history of legal charters asserting certain rights for particular groups goes back to the Middle Ages
and earlier. An example is Magna Carta, an English legal charter agreed between the King and his barons
in 1215. In the early modern period, there was renewed interest in Magna Carta. English common law
judge Sir Edward Coke revived the idea of rights based on citizenship by arguing that Englishmen had
historically enjoyed such rights. The Petition of Right 1628, the Habeas Corpus Act 1679 and the Bill of
Rights 1689 established certain rights in statute.
In America, the English Bill of Rights was one of the influences on the 1776 Virginia Declaration of
Rights, which in turn influenced the United States Declaration of Independence later that year.After the
Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1789, the United States Bill of Rights was ratified in
1791.
Inspired by the Age of Enlightenment, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen asserted
the universality of rights. It was adopted in 1789 by France's National Constituent Assembly, during the
period of the French Revolution.
The 20th century saw different groups draw on these earlier documents for influence when drafting the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

4. Exceptions in Western democracies
The constitution of the United Kingdom remains uncodified. However, the Bill of Rights of 1689 is part
of UK law. The Human Rights Act 1998 also incorporates the rights contained in the European
Convention on Human Rights into UK law. Recent infringements of liberty, democracy and the rule of
law have led to demands for a new comprehensive British Bill of Rights upheld by a new independent
Supreme Court with the power to nullify government laws and policies violating its terms.
Australia is the only common law country with neither a constitutional nor federal legislative bill of
rights to protect its citizens, although there is ongoing debate in many of Australia's states. In 1973,
Federal Attorney-General Lionel Murphy introduced a human rights Bill into parliament, although it was
never passed. In 1984, Senator Gareth Evans drafted a Bill of Rights, but it was never introduced into
parliament, and in 1985, Senator Lionel Bowen introduced a bill of rights, which was passed by the
House of Representatives, but failed to pass the Senate. Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard
has argued against a bill of rights for Australia on the grounds it would transfer power from elected
politicians (populist politics) to unelected (constitutional) judges and bureaucrats. Victoria, Queensland
and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) are the only states and territories to have a human rights Act.
However, the principle of legality present in the Australian judicial system, seeks to ensure that
legislation is interpreted so as not to interfere with basic human rights, unless legislation expressly
intends to interfere.

5. Is bill of rights part of original
American Constitution
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed
following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution, and written to address the objections
raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal
freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit
declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the U.S. Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or
the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those found in earlier documents, especially the
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the Northwest Ordinance (1787),the English Bill of Rights (1689), and
the Magna Carta (1215).
Due largely to the efforts of Representative James Madison, who studied the deficiencies of the Constitution pointed out
by anti-federalists and then crafted a series of corrective proposals, Congress approved twelve articles of amendment on
September 25, 1789, and submitted them to the states for ratification. Contrary to Madison's proposal that the proposed
amendments be incorporated into the main body of the Constitution (at the relevant articles and sections of the
document), they were proposed as supplemental additions (codicils) to it.Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as
additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, and became Amendments One through Ten of the Constitution.
Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 5, 1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is still
pending before the states.
Although Madison's proposed amendments included a provision to extend the protection of some of the Bill of Rights to
the states, the amendments that were finally submitted for ratification applied only to the federal government. The door
for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth
Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply
portions of the Bill of Rights to state and local governments. The process is known as incorporation.

6. First Amendment
• The First Amendment provides several rights protections:
to express ideas through speech and the press, to assemble
or gather with a group to protest or for other reasons, and to
ask the government to fix problems. It also protects the right
to religious beliefs and practices. It prevents the government
from creating or favoring a religion.
Second Amendment
• The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear
arms.
Third Amendment
• The Third Amendment prevents government from forcing
homeowners to allow soldiers to use their homes. Before
the Revolutionary War, laws gave British soldiers the right
to take over private homes.

7. Fourth Amendment
• The Fourth Amendment bars the government from
unreasonable search and seizure of an individual or their
private property.
Fifth Amendment
• The Fifth Amendment provides several protections for
people accused of crimes. It states that serious criminal
charges must be started by a grand jury. A person cannot
be tried twice for the same offense (double jeopardy) or
have property taken away without just compensation.
People have the right against self-incrimination and cannot
be imprisoned without due process of law (fair procedures
and trials).

8. Sixth Amendment
• The Sixth Amendment provides additional protections to people
accused of crimes, such as the right to a speedy and public trial, trial
by an impartial jury in criminal cases, and to be informed of criminal
charges. Witnesses must face the accused, and the accused is allowed
his or her own witnesses and to be represented by a lawyer.
Seventh Amendment
• The Seventh Amendment extends the right to a jury trial in Federal
civil cases.
Eighth Amendment
• The Eighth Amendment bars excessive bail and fines and
cruel and unusual punishment.
Ninth Amendment
• The Ninth Amendment states that listing specific rights in
the Constitution does not mean that people do not
have other rights that have not been spelled out.

9. Tenth Amendment
• The Tenth Amendment says that the Federal
Government only has those powers delegated
in the Constitution. If it isn’t listed, it belongs
to the states or to the people.