rights of the accused?

    I had someone tell me that since it says "the rights of the accused" in the U.S. Constitution, that the Constitution only applies to those accused of crimes--that it has no meaning to anyone else. This same person could go on in some detail about what "our" rights are--but by "our" she meant the people who shared with her the experience of having been tried for a crime. In her view, only these people have a legal guarantee of freedom of speech, assembly, religion, and the rest. I do not know if she learned this in prison, or whether she merely "read it into" something she was taught elsewhere. By the way, nowhere in the Constitution does it say "rights of the accused". That is merely the way we refer to the due process amendments--the amendments that spell out how a trial is to be conducted, and under what circumstances a person may be tried for a crime.

    The U. S. Constitution is for all Americans. It is, in fact, the supreme law of the United States. No law can be passed by the federal government ( the U.S. Congress and Senate, also called the legislature) or by any state government that conflicts with the Constitution. That is what is called "unconstitutional".  

Suggestion--no one gets out of prison without passing a citizenship test.