[coffeevradar]

Without the Bill of Rights having already been drafted and clearly having enough support for success, the Constitution would not have had enough support to have been ratified because of opponents that were concerned about the very rights that the Bill of Rights enacts (including freedom of speech).

It is obviously true that the first amendment is an amendment, but it is not accurate to suggest that it is (or was viewed at the time as) less essential than the document it amended.

This is something that is covered in most U.S. civics classes.

[esarbe]

I never took U.S. civics, so that is news to me. I always found it weird that it took an amendment to get to free speech but apparently this was all set up in one go?

Thanks for that!