Ancient Greeks and Romans created many of the basic ideas used in the Bill of Rights (Lowi&Ginsberg 1998). The United States Constitution was adopted in 1788, but ??a number of prominent Americans were alarmed at the omission of individual liberties in the proposed constitution.? (Early America, 2001) Both James Madison and Thomas Jefferson fought over the acceptance of these views. It was James Madison, though, that helped pass the first ten amendments. ?On September 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States therefore proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced against it. The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the number of constituents for each

The fourth amendment and the eighth amendments are two amendments that I believe to be very important. The eighth amendment states, "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines impose, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."(Lowi and Ginsberg 1998: A16). I see the eighth amendment to be an amendment more for criminals. It protects criminals from being treated unfairly. For instance, if there are two men convicted of selling drugs, they will most likely have the same amount of bail, and will be sentenced similarly. It also protects the courts and judges from mistakenly giving the wrong bail for the wrong crime. I think that this amendment is very important to Americans today. This can be referenced also when dealing with the present issues of racial profiling. Now when state troopers arrest a person for drunk driving, no matter who they are, where they are from, or the color of their skin, they will be sentenced the same way. They will both go through the criminal justice the same way. The only difference exists now when dealing with more serious crimes such as murder in all degrees as well as rape.

In conclusion, the fourth and eight amendments closely deal with the justice system of the United States, not only for civilians, but for the police department as well. These rights protect citizens as individuals from the government and limit the power that the higherarchy of justice has. If it were not for these two amendments, the individual's rights would not be as useful as they are today.

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