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​ In the United States of America, the **Bill of Rights** is the name by which the first ten [|amendments] to the [|United States Constitution] are known.[|[1]] They were introduced by [|James Madison] to the [|First United States Congress] in 1789 as a series of articles, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been [|ratified by three-fourths of the States]. [|Thomas Jefferson] was a proponent of the Bill of Rights.[|[2]] The Bill of Rights prohibits [|Congress] from making any law respecting an [|establishment of religion] or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, forbids infringement of "...the [|right of the people to keep and bear Arms]...", and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, [|liberty], or [|property], without [|due process] of law. In federal criminal cases, it requires [|indictment] by [|grand jury] for any [|capital] or "infamous crime", guarantees a speedy public [|trial] with an impartial [|jury] composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits [|double jeopardy]. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,"[|[3]] and reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the [|citizenry] or [|States]. Most of these restrictions were later [|applied to the states] by a series of decisions applying the due process clause of the [|Fourteenth Amendment] ​

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