History
Why the Bill of Rights has ten amendments
Congress proposed twelve amendments in 1789. Ten became the Bill of Rights. Follow the story, then practice the different questions on the two civics tests.
newlycitizen
4 min read
The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. But the document Congress proposed in 1789 contained twelve. Ten became part of the Constitution in 1791, giving the Bill of Rights the name and number you study today. The National Archives preserves the document and explains the difference.
That small surprise helps separate two things: what Congress proposed and what the states approved.
Why add a Bill of Rights?
During the debate over adopting the Constitution, opponents worried that the new national government would have too much power. They wanted written protections for individual rights. Several state conventions asked for amendments when they ratified the Constitution, according to the National Archives' account.
James Madison initially argued that a bill of rights was unnecessary because the Constitution already limited the government's powers. He later supported adding one. On June 8, 1789, as a member of the House of Representatives, he introduced proposed amendments. The Archives' history of the drafting follows that change and his effort to get Congress to act.
An amendment changes or adds to the Constitution. These amendments would put protections into the country's governing document.
Twelve proposals became ten amendments
Madison's proposals went through debate and revision in Congress. The House passed seventeen proposed amendments in August 1789. The Senate reduced that number, and on September 25 Congress agreed on twelve proposals to send to the states. The Center for Legislative Archives shows the Senate's marked-up document and traces those steps.
People could read the proposals in print. The Library of Congress identifies a newspaper printing of the twelve articles in the Gazette of the United-States on October 3, 1789, in its guide to primary documents.
Congress's proposal was one step. Ratification, the states' formal approval, was another. By December 15, 1791, three-fourths of the state legislatures had ratified ten of the proposals. Those became the first ten amendments. The National Archives' transcription explains why the original document's articles three through twelve are today's amendments one through ten.
| Number to remember | What it means |
|---|---|
| Twelve | Amendments Congress proposed in 1789 |
| Ten | Amendments ratified in 1791, known as the Bill of Rights |
One of the two remaining proposals concerned congressional pay. It eventually became the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1992. The other concerned representation in the House and was never ratified. Both are identified in the Archives' description of the original document.
What those amendments protect
The First Amendment addresses religion, speech, the press, peaceful assembly, and petitions to the government. Later amendments in the Bill of Rights address other subjects, including protections for people accused of crimes. You can read the ten amendments together in the National Archives' transcript.
For studying, connect the name "Bill of Rights" to protections for people's rights. The history explains how the protections entered the Constitution; the civics question may ask you for a much shorter answer.
How the two civics tests ask about it
On the 2008 test, question 5 asks: "What do we call the first ten amendments to the Constitution?" The accepted answer is "the Bill of Rights." See the 2008 USCIS questions and answers.
On the 2025 test, question 6 asks what the Bill of Rights protects. One accepted answer is "(The basic) rights of people living in the United States." The 2025 USCIS list also accepts an answer about the basic rights of Americans. Notice that the first wording includes people living in the country, not only citizens.
The two questions test different things. For the 2008 question, practice the document's name. For the 2025 question, practice what it protects. The twelve-to-ten story is a memory aid, not an extra date or number either of these questions requires you to recite.
If you need to choose a question bank, use our guide to the 2008 and 2025 tests. For answers about current officeholders elsewhere on the test, check USCIS test updates before your interview.
Sources
Checked October 26, 2026. USCIS question wording and answers were checked through indexed excerpts of official USCIS publications and the corresponding question banks. Direct access to the USCIS PDFs was blocked during this check. The historical sources below were opened and read.
- Civics Questions and Answers, large print (2008 version), USCIS, question 5.
- 128 Civics Questions and Answers (2025 version), USCIS, question 6.
- Bill of Rights (1791), National Archives.
- The Bill of Rights: How Did it Happen?, National Archives.
- Bill of Rights: Senate revisions, Center for Legislative Archives.
- The Bill of Rights: A Transcription, National Archives.
- Bill of Rights: Digital Collections, Library of Congress.
