The first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution are known as the Bill of Rights. It is one of the three founding documents (the other two being the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). The Bill of Rights was strongly influenced by the Virginia Declaration of Rights, written by George Mason, as well as the Magna Carta, the Petition of Rights, the English Bill of Rights, and the Massachusetts Body of Liberties. The Bill of Rights was written by James Madison as a solution to limit government power and protect individual liberties through the Constitution. The final state legislature to approve the Bill of Rights was Virginia’s. They approved them on December 15, 1791.
