The
Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten
amendments to the
United States Constitution. Proposed following the often times bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the Constitution, and crafted to address the objections raised by
Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights amendments add certain safeguards of democracy—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 delegated to Congress by the Constitution are reserved for the states or the
people—to the Constitution. The concepts
codified in these amendments are built upon those found in several earlier documents, including the
Virginia Declaration of Rights and the English
Bill of Rights 1689, along with earlier documents such as
Magna Carta (1215).