Thus, Article I, Section 9, prohibits Congress from interfering with the states' rights to import slaves for twenty years, from laying direct taxes other than according to the census, from taxing exports, and from granting titles of nobility. This article also protects individual rights by prohibiting Congress from suspending the writ of habeas corpus (requiring the government to specify charges against individuals who were imprisoned) except in limited circumstance or from adopting bills of attainder (legislative punishments without benefit of a trial) or ex post facto (retroactive criminal) laws. Similarly, Article I, Section 10 also prohibited states from enacting bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, or impairing the obligation of contracts. In like manner, Article VI prohibited any "religious Test" as a condition for federal office.
Perhaps because they still envisioned a relatively limited government, the framers of the Constitution did not give much consideration to a bill of rights. George Mason waited until near the end of the Convention to propose the addition of a bill of rights, and the states present unanimously defeated his motion.
Ratification Debates
The delegates bypassed the amending mechanism under the Articles of Confederation and provided that the new Constitution would go into effect when conventions in nine or more states ratified it.
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