The biggest similarity between the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta is that they both place certain formal constraints on the power of the central government. The Magna Carta came about due to the restlessness of English knights of the realm, who believed that King John was accruing too much power for himself at their expense. They therefore wanted some kind of written document that would enshrine their rights as well as spelling out exactly what the king could and could not do.

The Bill of Rights, like the Magna Carta, was also a document written for the benefit of a political elite. In this case, delegates to the Constitutional Convention were concerned that the proposed Constitution gave too much power to the Federal Government at the expense of the states, thus potentially reintroducing British tyranny by the back door. The ensuing Bill of Rights was a means of allaying these concerns while at the same time ensuring that the proposed Constitution had as much support as possible.

The Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights share something else in common: they were both written on paper, which is a 3-D object.

The Magna Carta, written in 1215 (and later revised several times) by rebel barons who pressed their demands on King John, leader of England, sets limits on the power of the monarch. Many of the provisions in the document were intended only for the elite. However, the document grants the accused rights in a criminal trial that later became the the English Petition of Right (passed in 1628) and the Habeas Corpus Act (passed in 1679). These important rights came from Clause 39 of the Magna Carta, which reads, "no free man shall be…imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed]… except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land" and from clause 40, which reads, "To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice."These rights of defendants in criminal trials became part of the Bill of Rights, particularly the 5th Amendment's protection of due process rights, which reads, "Nor shall any persons be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."

In fact, 9 out the 26 rights in the Bill of Rights can be traced back to the Magna Carta. However, the Magna Carta does not provide for the abolition of the monarchy, as does the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Paper is 3-D, as it has length, width, and an infinitesimal height. 

There are some similarities between the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights. The Magna Carta was issued in 1215. King John’s barons were upset by his actions because he was acting like a tyrant. They presented him with a list of demands, which, if he agreed to, would limit his power. If he did not agree to these demands, a civil war would have occurred. Thus, the King limited his power and that of future monarchs when he signed the document.

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