America’s Real Birthday
On this day in 1791, Virginia was the 11th state to ratify the Bill of Rights, and Bill of Rights went into effect.
The United States of America, as we think of it, did not really exist in many of it’s most important ways until these laws took effect. This set of amendments to the framework of the Constitution, providing for the protecting of the fundamental rights of liberty and property - to include (but not be limited to) freedom of speech, a free press, free assembly, and free association. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital or “infamous crime”, guarantees a speedy, public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. Beyond these lie many other of the basic rights and responsibilities of citizenship in America. Without the Constitution and, especially, the Bill of Rights we would not have been the nation we needed to be in the 20th Century.
Happy Birthday, America.