Tuesday, November 15, 2016

What originated from the English Bill of Rights and emigrated to the United States Constitution?

The English Bill of Rights, promulgated in the wake of the "Glorious Revolution" that replaced King James II with William of Orange and his wife Mary in 1689, articulated many of the basic rights later enshrined in the United States Constitution (if we include the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, in that document). Below is a list of some of these rights, followed by their location in the Constitution:
right to petition and free speech (First Amendment)
no excessive bail, nor cruel and unusual punishments (Eighth Amendment)
subjects allowed to bear arms (Second Amendment)
jury trial (Sixth Amendment)
Some other principles, like free elections, regularly seated Parliaments, and a general limitation placed on the powers of government, are also found in the Constitution. Of course, the Founding Fathers of the Constitution were familiar both with the English Bill of Rights and the historical processes that led to its establishment. Indeed, one of the major objections to the Constitution by its opponents was that it lacked explicit protections for the rights of the people. This need for a basic charter to protect the rights of the people harkened back to the English Bill of Rights.
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/england.asp

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