Who proposed the Bill of Rights? Was it always known by this nomenclature?
Professor Randy Barnett explains that James Madison wrote a “bill of rights” similar to the “Declaration of Rights” in the Virginia state constitution. Madison’s bill of rights was added as a list of amendments to the US Constitution and thus was simply known as the “Amendments.” Only in the 20th century did the first ten amendments become known as the “Bill of Rights.”
Professor Randy E. Barnett is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution.
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As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.
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