Fundamental rights.

James Madison, when making his proposal for a bill of rights in 1789, did not declare that all of his suggested amendments were of equal significance. Indeed, he wrote of his special concern for his rejected proposal that would have prohibited the states from violating “the equal rights of conscience, nor the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases.” He clearly considered these particular rights to be more basic than some of the other provisions, such as those enumerated in the Third and Seventh Amendments.