The Bill of Rights is organized by similar subject matter (B).
The Bill of Rights is made up of the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States. It was written by James Madison and lists restrictions to governmental power after several states called for greater constitutional protection for individual rights.
The simplified version of the ten amendments is as follows.
- Freedom of religion, speech, and press
- Right to bear arms
- The housing of soldiers
- Protection from unreasonable searches and seizures
- Protection of rights to life, liberty, and property
- Rights of accused people in criminal cases
- Rights in civil cases
- Excessive bail, fines, and punishments forbidden
- Other rights kept by the people
- Undelegated powers kept by the states and the people
Looking at this list, you can clearly see that it is organized according to similar subject matter. The subject matters range from freedoms, personal property, court cases and punishments, and general rights.
James Madison actually argued that the amendments should be added directly into the Constitution, but it was ultimately decided to be added on to the end of the Constitution. However, the amendments still follow the order of the parts of the Constitution that they would have modified.
