When is Bill of Rights Day?
Bill of Rights Day is observed every year on December 15th.
What is Bill of Rights Day?
The government might build a highway through your front door, but they can’t do it without paying you for the land. And this post you’re reading didn’t pass through a censorship office before publication. Phew! Bill of Rights Day celebrates the Bill of Rights and the American liberties it preserves.
What is the Bill of Rights? It’s for the people. It protects the people of the United States from authoritarian policies. It got crammed onto the end of the constitution as a series of ten amendments that safeguard American liberties. Free speech, gun rights, and the right to due process of law are some of the valuable privileges the Bill of Rights secures for American citizens.
President Roosevelt established Bill of Rights Day on December 15th, 1941, just 8 days after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. It was a statement to the world: We Americans take our rights and liberties very seriously, and we will defend them.
Fun facts about Bill of Rights Day!
- James Madison wrote up the Bill of Rights as part of the constitution, but state representatives argued that he couldn’t change the constitution like that, so they voted to amend the rights to the end of the constitution instead.
- Madison’s list of 20 amendments was shrunk to 17 by the House and then whittled down to 12 by the Senate. The states only ratified 10 of those amendments.
- One of the two unratified Amendments—Congress can’t arbitrarily give itself a pay raise—was finally ratified in 1992, a mere 203 years after it was proposed.
- There were 14 original copies of the Bill of Rights made for states to review, but only 12 survive today.
How to celebrate Bill of Rights Day:
- Display the U.S. flag on public buildings.
- Memorize the Bill of Rights.
- OK, just read the Bill of Rights if you don’t want to memorize it. Free speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, those are just part of Article 1, and there are 10 articles! You can also find quizzes online to check your Bill of Rights knowledge.
What’s the hashtag for Bill of Rights Day?
Share your love for liberty by using #BillOfRightsDay on social media.