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AMENDMENT 6. RIGHT
TO A SPEEDY, PUBLIC TRIAL (1791) In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
AMENDMENT 7. TRIAL BY JURY IN CIVIL CASES (1791) In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. AMENDMENT 8. LIMITS
OF
FINES
AND
PUNISHMENTS (1791)
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
AMENDMENT 9. RIGHTS OF PEOPLE (1791) The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. AMENDMENT 10. POWERS
OF STATES AND PEOPLE (1791) The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Constitutional Insight Amendment 6 What are the Miranda rights? The term comes from the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona (1966), in which the justices established basic rules that the police must follow when questioning a suspect. If suspected of a crime, you must be told that you have a right to remain silent and that anything you say “can and will” be used against you. You also need to be informed that you have a right to an attorney and that the attorney may be present during questioning. (See Miranda v. Arizona on page 900.) D
CRITICAL THINKING
How do the Miranda rights protect you?
Constitutional Insight Amendment 7 What are the “rules of the common law”? The common law is the body of legal practices and decrees developed in England and Englishspeaking America from A.D. 1066 through the present. It includes Magna Carta (1215), which acknowledges versions of rights affirmed in the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Amendments, as well as the English Bill of Rights (1689), which codified rights asserted in the First, Second, Seventh, and Eighth Amendments. The common law also includes the decisions and published opinions of state and federal appeals courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Constitutional Insight Amendment 9 Do you have a right to privacy? Until 1965, no such right had ever been explicitly stated by the courts. That year, in the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Court said there is an implied right of American citizens to make certain personal choices without interference from the government; this case concerned the right to use birth control. Years later, in Roe v. Wade (1973), the same logic was used to declare unconstitutional a Texas law restricting a woman’s right to an abortion in the first stages of pregnancy. Since that decision, both the right to privacy and abortion rights have become the focus of major political controversies. E
CRITICAL THINKING
How do you define the right to privacy?
THE LIVING CONSTITUTION
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