United States v. Cruikshank
United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. Bill of Rights did not limit the power of private actors or state governments despite the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. It reversed the federal criminal convictions for the civil rights violations committed in aid of anti-Reconstruction murders. Decided during the Reconstruction Era, the case represented a major defeat for federal efforts to protect the civil rights of African Americans.
The Waite Court in 1876
United States Bill of Rights
The United States Bill of Rights comprises the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the often bitter 1787–88 debate over the ratification of the Constitution and written to address the objections raised by Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add to the Constitution specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people. The concepts codified in these amendments are built upon those in earlier documents, especially the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), as well as the Northwest Ordinance (1787), the English Bill of Rights (1689), and Magna Carta (1215).
First page of an original copy of the twelve proposed articles of amendment, as passed by Congress
On June 5, 1788, Patrick Henry spoke before Virginia's ratification convention in opposition to the Constitution.
James Madison, primary author and chief advocate for the Bill of Rights in the First Congress
The National Archives' Rotunda for the Charters of Freedom in Washington, D.C. where, in-between two Barry Faulkner murals, the original Bill of Rights, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and other American founding documents are publicly exhibited.