Question

Why do the majority of states include provisions identical or very similar to those found in the Bill of Rights in their constitutions or as the first amendments to those constitutions? Copying the U.S. Constitution saved the state both time and money. Many of the framers of the U.S. Constitution later wrote their respective state constitutions. This was the initial strategy the framers of the constitution had to later introduce amendments that formed a strong central government. These provisions, based on English common law, guarantee the rights of the individual and protect the individual from unjust legal process, whether they originate at the state or federal level.

Answer 1

First Choice-These provisions, based on English common law, guarantee the rights of the individual and protect the individual from unjust legal process, whether they originate at the state or federal level.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The history and relationship between rights protected under federal and various state constitutions provide important insights into federalism.

The 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights is often credited with being the source or inspiration for the amendments James Madison offered to the Constitution in 1791. Those (ten) that originally passed came to be known as the Bill of Rights.

Although state bills of rights had inspired the construction of federal constitutional rights, recourse to state constitutions as an independent source of protection for expressive rights was not common until the later 1990s. Instead, because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution takes precedence over state law and constitutions, and because the Warren Court used its powers to incorporate many provisions of the Bill of Rights to apply to the states, there was little incentive or opportunity for state courts to reference their constitutions to protect individual expressive rights.