Bill of Rights

Bill of Rights/Amendment Paper

Sherri Brown

HIS/301

3/28/11

Jodi Cramer

Bill of Rights/Amendments Paper

Article V of the Constitution states the two ways the constitution can be amended. First the amendment can take place by a vote of two-thirds of both the House of Representatives and the Senate followed by a ratification of three-fourth of the various state legislatures (ratification by three-eight states are needed today to ratify amendments). The constitution can be amended by a convention called for this purpose by two-third of state legislature, if the convention’s purposed amendments are later ratified by three-fourth of the state legislatures.

Amendments become part of the Constitution because of change. Changes in society dictate what freedoms we fight for. A proposed amendment becomes part of the Constitution as soon as it is ratified by three-fourths of the States (38 of 50 States). When the OFR verifies that it has received the required number of authenticated ratification documents, it drafts a formal proclamation for the Archivist to certify that the amendment is valid and has become part of the Constitution. This certification is published in the Federal Register and U.S. Statutes at Large and serves as official notice to the Congress and to the Nation that the amendment process has been completed.

The problem that motivated the original documents to adopt a bill of rights was that the United States Constitution came under heavy criticism by anti-federalists who were upset that certain guarantees of individual rights were not included. Others in the Constitutional Convention only approved of the Constitution on the understanding that a guarantee of such rights would be added. The Bill of Rights, written by James Madison was the first additions, or amendments made to the Constitution. They guarantee certain individual rights like freedom of speech, religion, the right to petition the government for redress of grievances, the right to a jury,...