Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Table of Contents
This section covers the following topics
- Civil liberties and the freedoms under the Bill of Rights
- Civil Rights
- Important court cases
Section Summary
Civil liberties, which protect citizens from government infringement on their rights, are based in the Bill of Rights. These first ten amendments to the Constitution contain the freedoms of speech, religion, the press, and many others. The Fifth and Sixth Amendments contain court protections. The Fourteenth Amendment, while not a part of the Bill of Rights, allowed the Supreme Court to apply the Bill of Rights to state laws through selective incorporation. Civil rights provide protection for minority groups. Amendments to the Constitution, as well as legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, have advanced the status of minority rights in the U.S. government. However, there is still much discrimination and inequality in the U.S.
Civil Liberties
The Bill of Rights
After the completion of the Constitution, many states refused to ratify the Constitution unless they were guaranteed that a Bill of Rights would be added to the Constitution. Because of this, the first ten amendments made after the ratification of the Constitution were the Bill of Rights. Many of the rights outlined in these amendments concern civil liberties. Civil liberties protect individual citizens from tyranny and violation of their freedoms by the government. Civil liberties are different from civil rights, which will be discussed later.
At first, the Supreme Court ruled in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that the protections of the Bill of Rights only apply on a federal level, to federal laws. However, the principle of selective incorporation, where portions of the Bill of Rights are incorporated to the states, has become more common. Gitlow v. New York (1925) was the first instance where the Supreme Court ruled on a state case. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) was another case where the Supreme Court decided that the protections of the... Sign up to continue reading Civil Rights and Civil Liberties >
