Governments cannot give you rights – you already have them. They can only promise to preserve them or they can restrict them.

The “Bill of Rights” was not part of the original U.S. Constitution. The 10 amendments that make up the Bill of Rights were added only after the Constitution was initially rejected by the original would-be states.

The representatives that were to sign the Constitution and thereby join their states into these new “United States” were afraid that this new proposed federal government might become too strong and tyrannical, like the one that they had just fought so hard against during the Revolutionary War.

The “States” wanted a written guarantee that the new federal government that was forming would not wind up being just like the former federal government that they had overthrown.

Each state wanted to keep their own sovereignty. This is why they became states in the first place.

Federal law does not overrule or supersede State law- at least it was not supposed to. The Bill of Rights was attempting to make that clear. The 10th Amendment states – The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

The Bill of Rights and the Constitution did not – in any way – limit, describe or define any powers or laws of an individual state. It was in fact, a guarantee that the states would continue to have sole authority over everything that they did and that the Federal government could not interfere.

It was only in later amendments, and through various Supreme Court decisions, that almost everything in the Bill of Rights would eventually apply to the states.

For example, “Freedom of Relgion” is not in the Bill of Rights. Nor is the oft-quoted “Separation of Church and State”. The first amendment merely states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is only prohibiting the Federal Congress from making laws regarding religion, not the state governments.

Further, this clause did not mean that you could practice any religion that you wanted because again, it only states that the federal government could not rule on the issue. The states could still make whatever laws they wished, or choose to leave the decision of religion to the people in their state. The Bill of Rights protected the right of the state governments to decide on their own matters, including religion with no interference from the federal government.

Later court decisions, coupled with the notion of some that the Constitution should be a “fluid document”, changing with the needs of the day, would render the meaning of the Constitution often into exactly what it was originally designed to prevent.

If some of these points are shocking or seem to go against all that you have heard, that is okay.

Your entire knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights should not be learned from a few bullet points on a website. There are too many subtleties and too much context to boil down into bite-size pieces.

You are encouraged to explore the actual texts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as well as such writings as the Federalist Papers and the other writings known as the “Anti Federalist Papers”. Read essays by the founding fathers as well as their biographies. Read about U.S. history, look at Supreme Court case law, take more civics courses and generally delve deeper into the whole topic. There is a whole lot here that can be learned. It is impossible to boil down everything to an easily manageable talking point. It is a fascinating field however, and one that is so pertinent to the topics of today. Your entire political viewpoint may be shaped by the insight and understanding that you may find on this journey.