Bill Of Rights

Two Carroll residents helped welcome an original copy of the Bill of Rights when it arrived in Baltimore.Maurice L. Wiles of Mount Airy and Lawrence Wilhelm of Westminster are members of the Maryland Bill of Rights Host Committee that saw the Bill of Rights exhibit installed in the Baltimore Convention Center.Wiles is master of the Maryland State Grange and Wilhelm is president of the Restaurant Association of Maryland.The Bill of Rights will be on exhibit in Baltimore through Tuesday as part of a 50-state tour.

Sept. 25 1789 Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Con- stitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten became the Bill of Rights.)

TV PICK--Saving the National Treasures-- Preserving the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. (MPT, Tuesday, 8 p.m.)

Michael Cardin, a lawyer and son of Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin, died late Tuesday night at his Baltimore apartment. He was 30.City police officials said they believe Michael Cardin took his own life.Representative Cardin, a popular Baltimore Democrat, and his wife, Myrna Cardin, released this statement through a spokeswoman: "This is a very private and personal time. The family hopes the public will understand their need for privacy and a time to grieve."Michael Cardin was buried yesterday afternoon at Beth Tfiloh Cemetery in Baltimore.

One hundred and ninety nine years ago this week the Bill of Rights was ratified and became a part of the new Constitution. Often in recent decades, Americans have been asked if they approved these first 10 amendments, and often they have responded "yes" to the idea of a "bill of rights" in general but "no" to many of the enumerated rights as defined by current constitutional jurisprudence.Many -- perhaps most -- Americans do not believe criminal suspects should have the rights the Supreme Court has consistently found in the Bill of Rights amendments dealing with search and seizure, fair trial, due process of law. Many, perhaps most, Americans do not believe government institutions should be prohibited from supporting religion.

Alexandria, Virginia.--If, without violating the First Amendment, I could eliminate two words from the American vocabulary, it would be these: ''Founding Fathers.'' For one thing, they never really existed. More importantly, their invocation robs the U.S. constitutional system of its true vigor.In current American mythology, a single group of visionary men -- the ''Founding Fathers'' -- created our democratic form of government along with the rights that it protects. But during the republic's infancy, there never was a cohesive group of solons with a united vision of America.

ON DEC. 15, 1791, Virginia becamed the 11th state to ratify the Bill of Rights, thus making the amendments part of the Constitution of the United States. This event 200 years ago effectively completed the formation of our federal government, which has been a model for representative democracies ever since.The Founding Fathers crafted the Constitution as a blueprint for the rule of the majority, but added the Bill of Rights to protect individuals and minorities -- to, in the words of James Madison, "control the majority from those acts (against minorities)

What law is broken by school bus prayer? Would Charles Ecker, Superintendent of Carroll County public schools, please cite for us what "federal law is violated" even if school bus driver Stella Tsourakis says the Lord's Prayer with the school bus children? ("Officials investigate bus prayers," Dec. 14). Amendment I of the Bill of Rights to The Constitution states, "The Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." Jerry L. Brunst Westminster

The Bill of Rights -- the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution -- has gotten a good deal of attention this week on the 200 anniversary of its adoption, but little note has been taken of the fact that had it not been for one more amendment -- the 14th -- all the others would have had little meaning.It was the great 14th Amendment, one of the three additions to the Constitution that grew out of the Civil War, which extended the protection of the freedoms contained in the Bill of Rights to the states as well as to the national government.