Question

What are the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights that cannot be taken away by law

Answer 1

I assume you mean the U.S. Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution). Those amendments set out fundamental protections that governments may not lawfully violate without running afoul of the Constitution. Key rights included are:

- First Amendment: freedom of speech, press, religion (free exercise and establishment), assembly, and petition.
- Second Amendment: right to keep and bear arms.
- Third Amendment: protection against the quartering of soldiers in private homes without consent.
- Fourth Amendment: protection against unreasonable searches and seizures; warrants based on probable cause.
- Fifth Amendment: grand jury for serious federal crimes, protection against double jeopardy, protection against compelled self‑incrimination, due process, and protection against government taking private property without just compensation.
- Sixth Amendment: speedy and public trial, impartial jury, notice of charges, confront witnesses, compulsory process for witnesses, and right to counsel in criminal prosecutions.
- Seventh Amendment: right to jury trial in many civil cases (in federal courts).
- Eighth Amendment: protection against excessive bail or fines and against cruel and unusual punishment.
- Ninth Amendment: recognition that the list of rights in the Constitution is not exhaustive—people retain other rights not specifically listed.
- Tenth Amendment: reserves to the states or the people powers not delegated to the federal government.

Important caveats and context
- “Cannot be taken away by law” means these rights are constitutionally protected: ordinary statutes that violate them can be declared unconstitutional by the courts. But almost none of these rights are absolutely unlimited. Courts have recognized well‑defined exceptions and allowable regulations (for example, threats, incitement to imminent lawless action, obscenity, and certain time/place/manner restrictions on speech; reasonable gun‑safety regulations; searches with probable cause exceptions; limits on self‑representation or the scope of trials, etc.).
- The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause has been used to “incorporate” most Bill of Rights protections against the states, so state governments (not just the federal government) generally must respect them.
- The only reliable ways to remove or change these protections are to amend the Constitution or to have the Supreme Court reinterpret them; ordinary laws cannot permanently override them. Some extraordinary suspensions are possible in narrowly defined emergency circumstances (for example, the Constitution itself allows suspension of habeas corpus in rebellion or invasion).

If you want, I can summarize any particular amendment or show major Supreme Court cases that explain limits on a specific right.