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Publication Date

4-3-2026

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In this Article, I recount the brief history from the Philadelphia Convention, during which scant attention was paid to a bill of rights, to the ratification of the Bill of Rights only four years later. Although the delegates to the convention made frequent reference to individual liberty as central to their mission, and several of the newly enacted state constitutions included bills of rights, there was no serious consideration given to including a bill of rights in the constitution proposed for ratification by the states. In response to the occasional suggestions during the convention for specific rights guarantees, most of the Framers argued there is no need for a bill of rights in the constitution of a government of enumerated and divided powers. The proposed constitution, they insisted, is in its nature a bill of rights. The Framers would not have expected those who have since exercised the powers of the national government to embrace their theory. They are the ones, after all, who are to be constrained. But the Framers would be disappointed that only rarely have the courts recognized the importance of the Constitution’s disbursement of power to the protection of individual rights.

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