1. (usu. cap.) A section or addendum, usu. in a constitution, defining the situations in which a politically organized society will permit free, spontaneous, and individual activity, and guaranteeing that governmental powers will not be used in certain ways; esp., the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. [Cases: Constitutional Law 82(2). C.J.S. Constitutional Law §§ 445–446, 630.]
2. (cap.) One of the four great charters of English liberty (1 W. & M., 1689), embodying in statutory form all the principles of the other three charters, namely, Magna Carta, the Petition of Right (3 Car. 1 (1628)), and the Habeas Corpus Act (31 Car. 2 (1679)).
