What does the Bill of Rights protect?

Why this is the answer

When the delegates finished the Constitution in 1787, it did not list the rights of individuals. Many Americans wanted a list of the things a government could not do. They were afraid that a strong government would take away the rights people had won in the Revolutionary War. The supporters of the Constitution agreed to add such a list, and once they did, many more people backed the new plan. James Madison wrote the list of individual rights and limits on government. On September 25, 1789, the First Congress proposed twelve amendments to the Constitution. Ten of them were ratified on December 15, 1791, and those ten became the Bill of Rights. One of the other two was finally ratified in 1992 as the Twenty-seventh Amendment; the remaining one never was. What do the ten protect? The First Amendment covers five freedoms: speech, religion, the press, assembly and the right to petition the government. Other amendments protect the right to bear arms, freedom from searches without a warrant, the right not to be tried twice for the same crime, the right not to testify against yourself, trial by a jury of your peers, the right to an attorney, and protection against excessive fines and unusual punishments. The two official answers differ by one phrase: the basic rights of Americans, or the basic rights of people living in the United States. The second wording reflects that USCIS describes the First Amendment freedoms as rights of everyone living in the country, not only citizens. Either is correct, and the words "the basic" in parentheses are optional. Steer clear of answers about powers or procedures, such as the powers of the President, the borders of the states or the rules for electing Congress. Those are about how government is organized, not about the rights of the individual, and the Bill of Rights is about the individual. A simple way to picture it: the original document builds the government, and these ten amendments draw a line around the person that the government may not cross.