content: The Bill of Rights does that, kind of. The rest of the Constitution is about the form that the Federal Government has. I look at it as the board game's rule book.  You have to ask yourself why they put these limitations in there. They already had a government, a confederacy of states but some people wanted a central government. Some wanted a strong government with an executive with king-like power. Others wanted limited government with an emphasis on state and individual rights listed. Regardless of the intent what we ended up with is a behemoth of an empire that pays ever decreasing lip service to the rights enumerated.