FREE ESSAY ON BILL OF RIGHTS

BILL OF RIGHTS

After the Revolution, the States adopted their own constitutions, many of which contained
the Bill of Rights. The Americans still faced the challenge of creating a central
government for their new nation. In 1777 the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of
Confederation, which were ratified in 1781. Under the Articles, the states retained their
"sovereignty, freedom and independence," while the national government was kept weak and
inferior. Over the next few years it became evident that the system of government that
had been chosen was not strong enough to completely settle and defend the frontier,
regulating trade, currency and commerce, and organizing thirteen states into one union.
(1)
So in the summer of 1787 delegates from the twelve states convened in Philadelphia to
draft a new Constitution. They proposed a strong national government that would assume
many of the powers previously imposed upon the states. (1) "No sooner than had the
Continental Congress laid the proposed Constitution before the people for ratification, "
Irving Brant writes, "than a cry went up: it contained no Bill of Rights."(2) People
objected because the liberties they had fought for in the Revolution were not being
protected by the Constitution, and then could be ignored by the federal government. The
Anti-Federalist called for another convention to outline a Bill of Rights before the
Constitution was approved. The Federalist, fearing that the progress would unravel
completely, urged immediate ratification. With the understanding of a Bill of Rights to
follow later. Eventually the Federalist prevailed. By 1788, eleven states had ratified
the Constitution. Six states, however, sent Congress proposals for amendments, modeled on
their state constitutions and designed to protect individual rights. (1) 
James Madison realized that the public desire for a Bill of Rights could not be ignored.
In 1789, after reviewing the state proposed amendments and the state Bill of Rights to be
considered by Congress, he proposed nine amendments to be considered by Congress for
insertion into the text of the Constitution. After deliberation, debate, and some
alterations, the House and Senate voted to add the amendments on the end of the
Constitution and sent twelve amendments to the states for ratification. (1) Only ten of
theses were ratified and from those are what we know as the Bill of Rights today. 
As ratified in 1791, the Bill of Rights protected individual rights from violation by the
federal government. For example the First Amendment begins, "Congress shall make no
law..." Madison's original draft had contained a proposal that would have also prohibited
state governments from violating the Bill of Rights, but the Senate deleted it. (1)
It was not until after the Civil War that the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth
amendments were enacted and began protecting individuals against the states. The
Fourteenth Amendment has been the principal means by which this protection has been
accomplished. It reads, in part, "No State shall...deprive any person of life, liberty,
or property without due process of law." The Supreme Court had interpreted this guarantee
of liberty to embrace the fundamental liberties in the Bill of Rights, meaning that the
state governments must observe and protect them to the same extent as the federal
government this is also known called incorporation. The amendments in the Bill of Rights
are said to be incorporated against the states through the due process clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment. There has been an ongoing debate on the Supreme Court about the
extent of incorporation, and whether the entire Bill of Rights, or only some of it's
guarantees, should be incorporated against the states. (1)
Part II
The Supreme Court views and attitudes can change over time. First the membership of the
court changes when a justice retires or dies, and when the new justice is appointed to
fill his position the new justice may not share the same views as the previous one. Also,
new developments occur with the passing of time, which may cause a change in attitudes
and feelings bringing about new concerns on an issue. (3)
One Supreme Court reversal with far reaching consequences involved the Court's
interpretation of whether the Bill of Rights protected citizens from state, as well as
national violations. In 1833 case of Barron v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, the
Court ruled that the Bill of Rights could only be applied to strike down illegal actions
taken by national government. (3)
This interpretation was first seriously challenged after the Civil War, when the
Fourteenth Amendment was adopted. Congressman John A. Bingham, the chief author of this
Amendment, said that due process and equal protection clauses were intended to guard the
rights of all citizens against state violations. Nevertheless, for many more years to
come the Supreme Court still held to it's constricted view and did not extend the Bill of
Rights to State offences. (3)
Finally, in 1925, the Court began to change its position on this issue in the landmark
case Gitlow v. New York. When the Supreme Court announced it's decision and declared that
freedom of speech and freedom of the press, are also "among the fundamental personal
rights and liberties protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from
impairment by the States." (3)
In 1954, a landmark segregation case came before the Supreme Court. Black students had
been denied admission to all-white schools in Topeka, Kansas; under Kansas law, cities
with more than 15.000 residents it was acceptable to operate separate school systems,
providing that both schools were substantially equal in educational facilities. But in
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that segregation
by race in public schools is unconstitutional. Speaking for the Court, Chief Justice Earl
Warren declared, "... We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of
'separate but equal' has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently
unequal." With this outstanding decision, the Supreme Court buried the separate-but-equal
principal that it had sturdily supported a half a century earlier. (3)
The Supreme Court has made rulings and changed them over the course of time. These are
the things that should be expected to change and grow with the changing times. The needs
of the people are different now than they were two hundred years ago. Yet, at the same
time we still cling to the bases of the Bill of Rights, that gave us many of the rights
we have today. We as a society still want to be protected and assured of our freedoms and
rights and don't like it when those rights are threatened. The initial Constitution and
Bill of Rights wasn't written to include everyone in the rights and freedoms of citizens.
And it was seen then that our needs as a nation would change and these documents would
need to be able to expand and grow with the country. 
The Bill of Rights has been one of the corner stones that we as Americans have enjoyed
and taken for granted for the many years since its creation. The rights granted to us in
the Bill of rights are the same right many people of the world are still fighting for
even to the very day. We as Americans have become so accustom to having these rights we
often take these rights for granted. There is no way of denying it's historical
significance, if you just stop and try and imagine your life without your freedoms and
rights. These freedoms are what makes this country what it is and it also allows the
people within the United States to enjoy the freedom dreamed about by the founders of
this country as well. But as a country of whole, we take our rights and freedoms that our
ancestors fought for, for granted.