Officers stop a van for speeding, then open a locked toolbox in the back and search through it without the driver's consent and without a warrant. His lawyer asks the judge to keep what they found out of the trial. Which amendment is that request based on?

A city newspaper prints a story accusing the mayor of taking bribes. The mayor asks a judge to order the paper to stop printing anything further about him. Which amendment would the paper cite against such an order?

The country is at peace. An Army unit informs a family that four soldiers will be living in their spare rooms for the next month. The family never agreed to it and no law provides for it. Which amendment does this violate?

A man charged with felony burglary tells the judge he has no money for an attorney and asks the court to provide one before the trial begins. Which amendment supports his request?

A woman is arrested for taking a forty dollar jacket from a store. At her first hearing the judge sets the amount she must post to be released at two million dollars. Her attorney objects. Which amendment is that objection based on?

A jury finds a woman not guilty of setting a warehouse fire. Two months later the same prosecutor files the identical arson charge against her for the same fire. Which amendment blocks the second prosecution?

An ordinance makes it a crime for any resident to keep a handgun in his own home for self-defense. A homeowner sues to have the ordinance struck down. Which amendment is his suit built on?

A federal agency cancels a man's license to run a ferry service. It never told him what he was accused of and never gave him a hearing at which he could answer. Which amendment does he invoke?

A student group asks to gather peacefully in the town square and hand the council a signed list of complaints about a new curfew. The city refuses the permit because officials dislike the message. Which amendment protects them?

A state sets its own requirements for a high school diploma. Challenged in court, it answers that the Constitution never handed the national government power over graduation rules and never forbade the states to set them. Which amendment backs the state?

In court, a woman argues that something she claims is hers by right is nowhere named in the Constitution, and that its absence from the written list does not mean she has lost it. Which amendment supports that argument?

A man has been arrested and held in jail for weeks. No one will tell him what crime he is charged with, and he has not been brought before any court. Which amendment's guarantees is he being denied?

An amendment opens: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." What do those words do?

An amendment secures the right of the people to be secure in their "persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and adds that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." What does it require of officers?

An amendment reads in full: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." What does this cover?

An amendment provides that in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right "to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." What does this guarantee?

An amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." What does it protect?

An amendment reads: "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." What does it protect?

An amendment reads: "In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved." What does this clause secure?

A man charged with robbery has sat in jail for three years while the prosecutor postpones the trial again and again. He has a lawyer, no one searched his home, and he has not been questioned. Which guarantee is he being denied?

The federal government takes a strip of a farmer's land for a highway. He does not contest that the road may be built; his whole complaint is that he was offered far less than the land is worth. Which part of the Fifth Amendment is his claim based on?

A public school district orders every classroom to open the day with a prayer written by district officials. Parents sue. Which protection inside the First Amendment is at issue?

Two companies go to trial in federal court over a sixty thousand dollar unpaid contract. Neither faces any criminal charge, and one side insists a jury rather than the judge decide whose account of the deal is true. Which amendment gives that right?

A federal court orders a man to pay two hundred fifty thousand dollars for dumping a bag of trash beside a road. He does not dispute the conviction or the fairness of the trial. Which of the Eighth Amendment's three limits is he invoking?

A judge signs a warrant authorizing officers to "search anywhere on the block and take anything that looks suspicious." The officers did swear to facts amounting to probable cause. Which requirement of the Fourth Amendment does the warrant still fail?

An amendment provides: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Which amendment is it, and what does it settle?

The first eight amendments each protect something specific, such as speech, jury trial or bail. What makes the last two of the ten different in kind?

Several state ratifying conventions approved the Constitution only after supporters promised that a set of protections would be added by the first Congress. Which objection was that promise answering?

Read how the first ten amendments are worded: "Congress shall make no law," "shall not be violated," "shall not be required," "shall not be infringed." What does that pattern of wording show about how they work?

In Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton argued that adding a bill of rights to the Constitution was not merely unnecessary but risky. What was the risk he described?