The United States Bill of Rights is a ratified document dated December 15, 1791, consisting of ten amendments to the original constitutional text. It is rooted in federalist conceptions and was originally conceived as an instrument of protection of the individual against the central power.
State governments were not initially bound by the bill of rights. The protection of the person against these state governments resorted to their local constitutions. Only after the ratification of Amendment 14 in 1868 is an understanding built that the bill of rights also applies to states; In 1965, the Supreme Court ruled the Connecticut law to prohibit contraceptive use based on the 1791 bill of rights.