Which document influenced the U.S. Bill of Rights?

• A. Magna Carta
• B. English Bill of Rights
• C. Mayflower Compact
• D. Common Sense

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how prior English documents shaped the protections we see in the U.S. Bill of Rights. The English Bill of Rights established important limits on royal power and protected key liberties, such as ensuring due process and fair trials, preventing cruel punishment, and confirming certain rights of subjects. When the framers were designing the United States Constitution, they drew on these established English ideas about limiting government and safeguarding individual rights, making the English Bill of Rights the most direct influence on the Bill of Rights.

While Magna Carta laid early groundwork for the idea that rulers must be constrained, and the Mayflower Compact reflects early self-government in a colony, and Common Sense argues for independence, none of those provide the same direct constitutional protections that the English Bill of Rights offered and that the U.S. Bill of Rights adopts.