(01) Patriotic 4th of July Coloring Pages!

Bill of Rights (1791)
By US Founding Fathers For You

Learn these citizen rights so you will not get messed up...

After the leaders of the new United States wrote the Constitution in 1776, they had to get the thirteen states to agree to it.
Some of the states did not want to agree unless they could add rights for individual people.

So in 1791 the United States added ten new rights to the Constitution. These are called the Bill of Rights:

1. Congress cannot make any law about your religion, or stop you from practicing your religion.

The government cannot keep you from saying whatever you want, or publishing whatever you want (like in a newspaper, a book, or the internet).

Congress cannot stop you from meeting peacefully for a demonstration to ask the government to change something.

2. Congress cannot stop people from having and carrying weapons, because we need to be able to defend ourselves from evil men.

3. You do not have to let soldiers live in your house, except if there is a war, and even then only if Congress has passed a law about it.

4. Nobody can search your body, your house, your automobile, or your papers and things. They must prove to a judge they have good reason to think you have committed a crime and get a warrant for the search....

5...You cannot be tried for any serious crime without a Grand Jury deciding if there is enough evidence for your trial. If the jury decides you are innocent, the government cannot try you again with another jury. You do not have to speak at your trial.

You cannot be killed, or put in jail, or fined, unless you were convicted of a crime by a jury.

The government cannot take your house or your farm or anything that is yours, unless the government pays for it.

6. If you're arrested, you do not have to answer any questions before, during or after your arrest. You have a right to have your trial pretty soon.

The government cannot keep you in jail without trying you. The trial has to be public so everyone knows what is happening.

The case has to be decided by a jury of ordinary people from your area.

You have the right to know what you are accused of, to see and hear the people who are witnesses against you.

The government can help you get witnesses on your side, and you have the right to a lawyer to help you.

7. You also have the right to a jury in a civil case (a disagreement between people and, or with the government).

8. The government cannot make you pay more than is reasonable to get out of jail in bail or fines.

The government cannot order you to accept cruel or unusual punishments (like torture) even if you are convicted of a crime.

9. Just because these rights are listed in the Constitution does not mean you do not have other rights (states, federal or international rights), too.

10. Anything that the Constitution does not say that Congress can do should be left up to the states, or to the people.

Free Printable Version of US Bill of Rights