The US Constitutional Amendments

Bars Congress from establishing a religion or restricting its free exercise, and from abridging freedom of speech or of the press, the right to assemble peacefully, or the right to petition the government. Five separate protections in a single sentence.

The Establishment Clause has been read both as requiring strict separation of church and state and, more recently, as permitting accommodation grounded in historical practice. The boundaries of protected speech are set largely by case law rather than the text, with obscenity, incitement and defamation carved out.

Protects the right to keep and bear arms, prefaced by a clause about a well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state.

How the militia clause relates to the operative clause was disputed for two centuries, between an individual right and one tied to militia service. District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) held it protects an individual right, and McDonald v. Chicago (2010) applied it to the states. How far regulation may still go remains actively litigated.

Prohibits quartering soldiers in a private home in peacetime without the owner's consent, and requires that wartime quartering follow law.

Almost never litigated; the Supreme Court has never decided a case squarely on it. Occasionally cited in arguments for a general constitutional right to privacy.

Protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires warrants to rest on probable cause and to describe the place to be searched and things to be seized.

What counts as a search has been redefined repeatedly as technology changed, moving from physical trespass to a reasonable expectation of privacy, and on to cases about GPS tracking and cell-site location data. The exclusionary remedy for violations is judge-made, and its exceptions are contested.

Requires grand jury indictment for serious federal crimes, bars double jeopardy, bars compelled self-incrimination, guarantees due process of law, and requires just compensation when private property is taken for public use. Five distinct protections.

What counts as "public use" under the Takings Clause divided the Court in Kelo v. New London (2005), and many states responded by narrowing the standard in their own law.

Guarantees a speedy and public criminal trial before an impartial local jury, with notice of the charges, confrontation of witnesses, compulsory process for defence witnesses, and the assistance of counsel.

The right to appointed counsel for defendants who cannot afford one comes from Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) rather than the text, and whether public defence is adequately funded is a continuing dispute.