The Politically Incorrect
This is the amendment protecting the right to assemble and petition the government.
What is the First Amendment
This amendment prohibits the forced quartering of soldiers in private homes during peacetime.
What is the Third Amendment?
This amendment protects a defendant from double jeopardy and self-incrimination.
What is the Fifth Amendment?
This principle is protected by the Tenth Amendment, reserving certain authority to state governments.
What is Federalism (or States' Rights)?
This amendment guarantees the right to a jury in most civil lawsuits.
What is the Seventh Amendment?
This clause of the First Amendment says the government cannot create an official, state-sponsored religion.
What is the Establishment Clause?
This amendment requires a court-issued warrant based on probable cause before police can search a home.
What is the Fourth Amendment?
This Fifth Amendment power allows the government to take private property for public use, provided the owner is paid just compensation.
What is Eminent Domain (or the Takings Clause)?
This amendment ensures that fundamental rights not specifically listed in the Constitution, like the right to privacy, are still protected.
What is the Ninth Amendment?
This amendment ensures that bail and fines cannot be excessive.
What is the Eighth Amendment?
In addition to speech, press, and religion, the First Amendment protects these two other freedoms.
What are the rights to assembly and petition?
This is the core principle that the Fourth Amendment protects against by requiring that searches and seizures must be reasonable.
What is unreasonable search and seizure?
This Sixth Amendment right is often cited as the most important because it is the "gateway" to all other procedural protections.
What is the Right to Counsel (a lawyer)?
This is the legal term for the powers that are kept by the states because they were not explicitly given to the federal government.
What are Reserved Powers?
This amendment guarantees a defendant the right to confront the witnesses testifying against them.
What is the Sixth Amendment?
This is the only amendment that addresses a right related to the security of a state militia
What is the Second Amendment?
This amendment addresses the use of general warrants and writs of assistance, which were historically used by the British to conduct broad searches.
What are the Third and Fourth Amendments?
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments both contain a clause guaranteeing this right, which ensures that all legal procedures are fair.
What is Due Process?
This is the legal doctrine that uses the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process clause to apply the Bill of Rights' protections to state governments.
What is the Incorporation Doctrine (or Selective Incorporation)?
This amendment is cited when challenging a state law that bans a right not explicitly listed, like the right to travel.
What is the Ninth Amendment?
This is the legal term for a government action that attempts to block material from being published or broadcasted before it even appears.
What is Prior Restraint?
These two amendments address the security of a person's physical home and private property against unwelcome government intrusion.
What are the Third and Fourth Amendments?
This amendment is unique among the Bill of Rights because it deals exclusively with the right to a jury in a civil (non-criminal) lawsuit.
What is the Seventh Amendment?
This constitutional principle is the division of power between the national government, the states, and the people, and is supported by the Tenth Amendment.
What is Federalism?
This amendment guarantees the right to own a firearm for defense, often debated today regarding modern regulations.
What is the Second Amendment?