The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights and were ratified on December 17, 1791.
Amendment I:
The first amendment guarantees that individuals' rights to practice religion freely, speak freely, freedom of the press, assemble (meet together) peacefully, and petition (ask for a change) the government.
Amendment II:
This amendment protects the rights to "bear arms." This means that people can own guns, not that they can have their arms replaced by a grizzly's arms.
Amendment III:
Home owners cannot be forced to give shelter to soldiers without their consent.
Amendment IV:
A person's property cannot be searched or seized without a search warrant or "probable cause" (a good reason to think that they committed some crime).
Amendment V:
No person can be tried for the same crime twice, forced to be a witness against himself, or have property taken without being paid for it. It also includes the right to due process of law which guarantees a fair trial.
Amendment VI:
All criminally accused have the right to a speedy and public trial, an unbiased jury, to be notified of what crime is being accused, to be able to confront witnesses against him or her, and have a lawyer.
Amendment VII:
In a common law case (cases defined by judges and previous legal actions instead of by legislation), individuals have the right to a trial by jury.
Amendment VIII:
Punishments, bails (payment to be released from custody), and fines will be fair.
Amendment IX:
This amendment talks about the "enumerated powers," which just means that there are rights of the people not mentioned in the Constitution that should not be stepped on.
Amendment X:
This is a critical amendment that basically says, any powers not specifically given (by the Constitution) to the Federal Government and not specifically denied to the states (again by the constitution), is decided by the states. An example of this would be the legality of abortion.
Debbie Twyman & Craig Whitney. Constitution in Plain English. Retrieved February 13, 2011 From the Debbie Twyman and Graig Whitney Film arts and Social Studies web site:
