What role does the Bill of Rights play in today's society?

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is incredibly important in today's society. It controls government, law enforcement, the judicial process, the press's freedoms, and much about our everyday lives.  The Bill of Rights is a promise to the American people that there are certain rights government cannot take away from them.   

There are many examples of the relevance of the First Amendment right now.  One instance is the divide...

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is incredibly important in today's society. It controls government, law enforcement, the judicial process, the press's freedoms, and much about our everyday lives.  The Bill of Rights is a promise to the American people that there are certain rights government cannot take away from them.   

There are many examples of the relevance of the First Amendment right now.  One instance is the divide concerning gay marriage, which some people believe interferes with their right to practice their religion, or at least, that is the argument they put forth.  Another concerns the freedom of the press, which one presidential candidate has threatened to interfere with if he is elected.  That would be unconstitutional, of course.  The First Amendment is what allows someone of a minority faith to be a duly elected or appointed official. Without this amendment, I think it unlikely in today's climate that anyone of the Jewish, Islam, or Hindu faith would be in public office.  The First Amendment is what allows a person to write a letter to the editor criticizing the government without fear of reprisal. Many countries do not have these protections. 

It seems to me lately that people are arguing about the Second Amendment almost daily.  There is a great divide regarding its interpretation, with some people arguing that guns cannot be controlled at all and others arguing that they should be strenuously controlled. Lobbyists spend great sums of money to sway Congress and state legislatures on this issue. 

Still other amendments influence how the police may proceed against criminals, requiring probable cause, for example, for searches and seizures, and a right to counsel before the police may interrogate.  Those are provided for, respectively, in the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. 

The entire criminal judicial process is controlled by the Bill of Rights, with its guarantee of due process before the state can take a person's life, a person's money, or a person's property.  These include a speedy and public trial, the right to confront one's witnesses, protection against double jeopardy, and the right against self-incrimination.  These are in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

Even the Ninth Amendment, which no one ever talks about very much, plays a role in today's world. It states that the rights listed in the Constitution are not necessarily the only rights people have.  This laid the foundation for a right to privacy, which is one reason that women today enjoy reproductive freedom. 

We must hope that the Bill of Rights is never tampered with or rolled back because it is the backbone of our democracy.  Without it, there cannot be a true democracy, as has been shown to be true time after time in other countries.