Most of the civil rights embedded in the constitution come from amendments and not the main body of the text, which mostly just describes the structure of gover

Most of the civil rights embedded in the constitution come from amendments and not the main body of the text, which mostly just describes the structure of government. The first ten amendments (collectively, the Bill of Rights) were written and passed specifically because the lack of guarantees of civil rights was called out during debates of ratification, and a few states only agreed to ratification with the understanding that a Bill of Rights would be passed. Beyond those amendments, several more amendments also aimed specifically to identify more civil rights that needed constitutional guarantees of preservation; it's actually shocking how few amendments are geared towards altering the structure of government itself.