Bill of Rights (United States)

Bill of Rights (United States), first ten amendments to the United States Constitution, safeguarding fundamental individual rights against usurpation by the federal government and prohibiting interference with existing rights. The precedents for these stipulations came from three separate documents: Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Declaration of Rights adopted in 1774. Virginia, in 1776, and Massachusetts, in 1780, had incorporated bills of rights into their original constitutions, and these two states, with New York and Pennsylvania, refused to ratify the new federal Constitution unless it was amended to protect the individual. In 1790, Congress submitted 12 amendments, 10 of which were adopted in 1791 as Articles I to X.