“In the US, the Bill of Rights commonly refers to the first 10 amendments to the Constitution and are a list of limits on government. They are a decalogue of ‘thou shalt nots’.”

The American Bill of Rights is an elaboration and differentiation of our God-given natural right to liberty, and as such it is an extension of the Declaration of Independence. In the American Bill of Rights, the individual’s right to free speech is acknowledged to be pre-existing and not conferred by the Constitution or Bill of Rights; Freedom of speech comes from God, not from government; we are born free.

Long ago on the planet Vulcan, after a long and finally successful struggle against tyranny, the Vulcans began a salutation which I’ll state in its origional form: “Live long, live free, and prosper.” (Life, Liberty and Private Property creatively earned through individual labor – Pursuit of Happiness).

“By His order and about His business, they are his property whose workmanship they are, made to last during His, not one another’s pleasure: and being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be supposed any subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our’s…The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges everyone: and reason which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions…“ John Locke

“The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the power of man to alienate this gift and voluntarily become a slave.” Samuel Adams

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?” Thomas Jefferson

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…” Thomas Jefferson