THE CASE FOR LIBERTY

Helen Hill Miller's case is that the Bill of Rights was based on the outcome of experience within the states, which made provisions in their own constitutions for rights on trial at an earlier period. Often at odds with royal authority, the offenders included Baptist preachers imprisoned for dissent in Virginia, Zenger of the New York Weekly Journal, tried for sedition. Resultant legislation on the part of the individual states paved the way for the Federal Bill of Rights. Mrs. Miller takes up in turn ten rights, offering background and case history for each; freedom of religion; of the press; the right to bear arms; the quartering of troops; search and seizure; due process of law; trial in the vicinage; the right to a jury; freedom from extortion. Her careful scrutiny and scholarship make available an important part of the American experience for the reader inclined to the study of civil rights; otherwise, it will be essentially a reference tool.