The U.S. Bill of Rights came into force
On this day · 15 December 1791
On December 15, 1791, Virginia cast the deciding vote, turning ten amendments into the foundation of American civil liberties.
On December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution were ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures, becoming the Bill of Rights. Virginia was the tenth of fourteen states to approve them, supplying the majority needed to make the amendments law.
Congress had proposed twelve amendments in 1789 to answer Anti-Federalist fears that the new Constitution gave the federal government too much power without protecting individual liberty. Two were not ratified at the time — one on congressional apportionment, the other on congressional pay.
The pay amendment finally became the 27th Amendment in 1992, after more than two centuries in limbo.
The ten that passed guaranteed freedoms of speech, religion, press, and assembly, the right to bear arms, protection against unreasonable searches, and guarantees of due process and fair trials — the rights Americans now treat as bedrock.
Sources & references
2 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 2 independent sources.
