Bill of Rights Explained: Breaking down the amendments

[Music] welcome Liberty lovers friends of individual rights and fans of limited government Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Tim snowball back again with some thoughts on the Bill of Rights and why it's protections are just as important today as they were over 200 years ago now the most important thing to understand at the get-go that so many people get wrong is this your rights belong to you not to the government in case you haven't seen my previous two episodes lengths are included in the description below here's a quick recap for those of you who like your constitutional law Tarantino style after beating the mighty British Empire in the war of independence founders had to create a new national government but right away they started fighting amongst themselves about how to make sure their new government didn't turn tyrannical the debate threatened to tear the new country apart and divided the leaders into two camps the Federalists who supported the Constitution and the anti-federalists who were skeptical kind of like a modern-day teenage soap opera team Adams versus team Jefferson the Federalists advocated for the new constitution believing that as structural limitations on the power of the government would be enough to preserve the liberty of the people despite some ambiguous clauses that in fact caused some major trouble for the United States down the road you guys want to see a video on what those clauses were drop me a comment below now the anti-federalist on the other hand demanded the Constitution include a specific listing of individual rights the new federal government would be prohibited from violating notice the whole debate was about how best to protect your rights against the government again your rights belong to you not to the government eventually the two camps reach a compromise to add what we would eventually call the bill of rights to the Constitution the Bill of Rights was influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights written by the most neglected founding father George Mason guys if you're in DC please do me a favor and go and visit George Mason's memorial he could really use the company the author of the Bill of Rights James Madison proposed amendments encompassing those natural rights considered to be the most essential to the founders and were thus qualified to be specifically protected from the new and powerful federal government here's a little-known fact there were originally seventeen amendments proposed but only 12 were ratified by the Senate and only 10 were ratified by the state legislatures one of them having to do with members of Congress not being able to raise their own salaries until after an election didn't make the first cut but was ultimately approved in 1992 that's the 17th amendment the most recently added Madison's first proposed amendment which was ultimately not approved is no less astounding for the impact that it could have had it reads that there be prefixed to the Constitution a declaration that all powers originally rested in and consequently derived from the people that government is instituted in ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty with the right of acquiring and using property and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety but the people have an indubitable unalienable and indefeasible right to reform or change their government whenever it be found adverse or inadequate for the purposes of its institution now the reason this language is so astounding is the impact that it could have had on later US history now while these ideas are part of the founding philosophy of the United States they would have made a huge impact for them to be part of the original actual Constitution as it's been described by Clark Neely at the Cato Institute if the Constitution system of checks and balances are the walls of a castle that keep federal power within the proper limits the Bill of Rights is like an individual suit of armour through which even constitutionally exercised power cannot pass now let's examine these amendments one by one the First Amendment the First Amendment means that Congress cannot establish an official state religion or prevent the free exercise of any faith it protects our free speech the operation of a free press and protects our right to peaceably protest government actions that we do not agree with basically some of our most important civil liberties the Second Amendment and the Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear firearms for the protection of our person's property and individual liberty humming and target-shooting were strangely not mentioned the third amendment the third amendment that protects the right not to have the government force us to house soldiers in our homes against our will during peacetime and only allows it in times of war as prescribed by law aka the least litigated amendment in the history of the country the Fourth Amendment the Fourth Amendment protects our rights do not have our persons or property unreasonably seized or searched by government agents basically police officers should keep their hands to themselves the Fifth Amendment the Fifth Amendment protects an entire laundry list of Rights having to do with criminal prosecution and property rights including the right to remain silent the right to due process and the right to be paid fairly if the government takes your property for public use some of Pacific legals most successful and famous past cases have been cases brought under the Fifth Amendment the sixth amendment the sixth amendment guarantees your right to have a speedy and public trial by a local jury when charged with a crime the right to know specifically what crime you've been charged with the right to make witnesses against you come forward and the right challenge them on the stand and the right to have the help of a lawyer you know like me in the seventh amendment as I learned in law school nobody really knows what the Seventh Amendment means just kidding the Senate amendment preserves the right to have a trial by jury in certain simple lawsuits with major amounts of money involved for twenty dollars the eighth amendment the eighth a minute protects the right to be free from excessive bail fines and cruel and unusual punishments you know like torture and last but certainly not least the 9th and 10th amendments now most people don't even know what these amendments are about but they are in fact two of the most important amendments in the entire Bill of Rights they represent a compromise between the Federalists and anti-federalists to not only explicitly limit the power of the federal government but to ensure that the rights specifically listed in the bill of rights are not the only rights protected by the courts unfortunately these amendments have not been enforced in subsequent years the ninth amendment just because there are certain rights specifically listed in the Constitution does not mean and does not diminish the other natural rights retained by the people this means the government was supposed to recognize all of your natural rights even if they weren't written down and finally the 10th amendment the 10th amendment reads that the power is not specifically given by the people to the federal government are reserved to the States or to the people themselves the science pre-existing government the next thing that jumps out at us is the nature of the rights contained in the Bill of Rights these are negative rights and that they do not describe what we must do or what must be done for us but instead describe our already existing natural or self-evident rights to be left alone the Bill of Rights also does not make any distinctions between which rights courts should protect or what should be ignored it does not say the First Amendment is super important but the second amendments probably outdated or the ninth and 10th amendments really don't count and in the case of the 9th and 10th amendments they were supposed to ensure that the rights not specifically listed were also protected by the courts and the bulk of power would be reserved to the States or to the people particularly important given subsequent Supreme Court decisions justice Jackson once wrote that the very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw a certain subject from the Vista to is a political controversy to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts one's right to life liberty and property to free speech a free press freedom of worship and assembly and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote they depend on the outcome of no elections one more time say it with me your rights belong to you not to the government hey Liberty lovers I'm here outside the real Justice League headquarters I want to thank you so much for watching the video I really appreciate it if you liked it if you hated it there's anything you'd like to see in the future please leave us a comment below for now keep fighting

Channel: Pacific Legal Foundation

Views: 171,332

Rating: 4.8850489 out of 5

Keywords: bill of rights, constitution, law, legal theory, amendments, second amendment, 9th amendment, first amendment, fourth amendment, fifth amendment, gun rights, free speech

Id: qZ5VOXfY1kY

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 04 2018