None of the Amendments give anything to anyone. What they do is recognize certain rights that are inherent to all free peoples, and protects them from government encroachment. I paraphrase, of course, but essentially what we have when we read The Declaration, The Bill of Rights, the rest of the Constitution, as well as a the Federalist papers and various other writings of the time, is the following: You are a free people, and you will know this because your government is not allowed to do these things to you; when your government does or tries to do these things to you, this is how you will know you are no longer free. The Constitution is a pact - a social contract, if you will - between the people and the government. IMO, that contract has been violated countless times and in innumerable ways: * Asset "forfeiture". * Permits and permission slips to petition the government for a redress of grievances. * Permits and permission slips to arm yourself. * Secret warrants. * Indefinite detention. * Extrajudicial executions. * Hyperviolent pre-dawn raids on people suspected of consuming (or facilitating the consumption of) disapproved substances. * Charging people with numerous crimes based on a single act in order to be certain something sticks. * A pay-to-play judicial system where only the wealthy can receive adequate representation. * A two-tiered justice system where the wealthy and/or politically connected can commit treasonous acts (or destroy the entire national economy) and get away with it. * Lies to lead the nation into several costly, disastrous wars with zero repercussions. ...and on and on and on.