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Question 5 of 100 · 2008 civics test

What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

From the 100-question list, the version for applications filed before October 20, 2025.

Accepted answer

  • the Bill of Rights

Why this is the answer

When the Constitution was written it concentrated on the system and structure of government and said little about individual rights. Many Americans would not accept that. They had just won rights in the Revolutionary War and feared a strong government would take them back, so they wanted a written list of what the government could not do. James Madison, one of the Framers, drafted that list, and it became the first ten amendments, known together as the Bill of Rights. They were ratified in 1791 and cover freedom of expression, the right to bear arms, protection from search without a warrant, and the rights of anyone accused of a crime. Memory hook: ten amendments, one name, all about limits on the government.