Civil Rights And Liberties

As Americans, we are taught that we have our basic rights from the time we first go to school. Over time, we have been given more rights than in the past. In simpler terms, we have more rights today than we did yesterday, and we will have more rights tomorrow than we have today. In the world, there has been many events that have helped or hindered the impact of our rights. Life first begins with our civil rights and liberties. As our civil rights and liberties are publicized and opinionized on media, the public begins to have a perception of certain government agency’s actions. Then, on a higher level we also should remember people’s political stance and what values and/or morals they hold. How Americans are given their rights is an ongoing debate; however, there are no rights and wrongs just consequences that follow each action.

When our founding fathers sat down to illustrate and create the foundation of the United States, they had many goals and ideals they set out to uphold. One of those is equality. It states clearly in our constitution that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It can sometimes be a blurry line to if these ideals are still upheld in a rapidly changing and disunified country. This is where our civil sequences: Liberties and Rights, keep our country intact. 1 Both Civil Liberties and Rights are granted and defined in the Constitution. We must continue enforcing our civil sequences to maintain order for ourselves, our states,

Webster defines civil liberty as a freedom from arbitrary governmental interference specifically by denial of governmental power, and in the United States especially as guaranteed by the bill of rights. Civil liberties are the basic rights, and freedoms that are due to every American citizen. More than often, civil liberties and civil rights are often used synonymously, but those terms are very distinct. A civil rights violation happens during designated situations where a person is discriminated against based on physical characteristics. However, civil liberties deal with basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed within the Bill of Rights and U.S constitution, inferred over the years by courts, and legislatures. Although, there are many liberties outlined within the United States constitution freedom of speech will be expounded upon.

I am a citizen of the United States of America, arguably the most powerful country in the world. As such, I expect to be treated as outlined in our Declaration of Independence: “...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness-”. It seems like such a simple idea; everyone deserves to live life freely and happily. So why is it that today there are so many controversies pertaining to this very principle? Our civil rights and liberties as American citizens are constantly under scrutiny as we struggle to understand the simple word ‘all’. History is our evidence that minority groups are

1. 2 Define Civil Liberties; then define Civil Rights. How are they similar? How do they differ? Which civil sequence has more influence on your life as you know it to be now? Why do you believe this to be so?

1 McGahey 3 Megan McGahey Sherry Sharifian GOVT 2305 71430 20 September 2017 Civil Liberties vs.

The balance between the duty of the government, both on a state and federal scale, and the citizens’ view of freedoms has been a continuous struggle throughout the readings. Although many members of America’s youth believe that their participation in politics is aimless, public opinion and voting are very important aspects of shaping the government. Without certain civil rights being granted by the government, these important rights of expression and suffrage would not exist.

Civil liberties and civil rights are very commonly used statements, which can be carelessly misused. Both statements are similar to some degree, but do hold different meanings. These statements may seem exactly the same, but by true definitions, the difference between both is unmistakable. Civil liberties are the protections against government actions. Civil rights, however, is positive actions of government should take to create equal conditions for all Americans.

The expansion and development on specific civil liberties and rights since the birth of America can be seen as one of the biggest evolutions in the Constitution. The original Constitution and Bill of Rights did not convey anything about equality aside from that all Americans are entitled to due process in court. The word “equality” for instance does not even appear in the Constitution. Thus the topic of equality and civil rights is a grey area that is not clearly defined or understood. Prior to the Civil War, the inequality of African Americans and women for example were easily apparent. African Americans lived as slaves and had no rights at all and were claimed by some in court cases that the Founders believed that blacks had no rights that the government had to honor. While women also suffered many inequalities such as not having the right to vote and some states went so far as to deny them right to own property or submit contracts. The exclusion of civil rights allowed for interpretation and the implementation of unequal policies throughout the states.

One might ask the importance of civil liberties after so many years. The answer is that we are all touched by these liberties every day. Even though civil liberties were embedded into the Bill of Rights in the late 1800’s, we today, as Americans, still have the right to be protected against any abusive power used by the government (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 106). Although Americans are protected fully today, it took over a century for all civil liberties to be implemented. With several civil liberties in place, which is most important? Which liberty protects us as Americans, most significantly? I believe all of our civil liberties are equally as beneficial and lead to the safety of every citizen in the United

Civil liberties are what you would consider your basic rights, and also freedom that should be guaranteed. For example, what is stated in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

The legislature of the fictitious state of Xanadu passes a law that states "All people are welcome at all state-run swimming, beach and golf facilities, as long as they are white. Non-whites may not use any of those facilities."

Jury duty is a constitutional and fundamental right guaranteed to American citizens. Jury service is a way for citizens to directly participate in the judicial system. Jury duty and jury trials have been around for so long that people take it for granted. The jury was one of the factors that caused the American Revolution because the English common law system did not allow alleged criminals to have the sixth amendment rights that the United States has today. In fact, The Declaration of Independence charged that King George III deprived the colonists of a trial by jury (United States Federal Judicial Center, n.d). The Founding Fathers of the United States established the role of the jury and the right to trial by jury in most criminal and civil cases in the Constitution but that clearly cannot be fulfilled unless there are people serving on a jury.

In the developing stages of America, many Americans had a very hard time adapting and accepting people of different backgrounds. America has battled the war on our civil liberties all the way from the 1800s until now. The law that was passed to protect the people of the United States from certain things has caused more damage then it was intended to do. America has many loopholes that have given the government many opportunities to violate the civil liberties of people when they feel the country is in any type of danger. In the 1800 and 1900s America was infested with many different types of disease, such as Cholera, Typhoid and Whooping Cough. With the amount of immigrants coming into the U.S, people often blamed them on bringing diseases with them. Many civil liberties were put at risk here because the Americans wanted to protect their nation at any cost. They held people against their will such as Typhoid Mary and the Chinese, treated women and children differently from their male counterparts, and immigrant workers were not treated correctly.

When citizens of society break federal and state laws they face a punishment known as “ jail” or “ prison”, which purpose is to not only to serve as a punishment but to also act as a program designed to help convicts enter back in to the society as a better person. As citizens of the United States we have civil rights granted to us from the U.S. Constitution that are not meant to just be taken away from us whenever the correctional system feels like it. Many people believe that once a person is put into prison that all of the prisoners’ rights are stripped form them, which is an untrue statement. Some of the basic prisoner laws state that all prisoners must be respected to and their life valued as a human being, it should be no type or