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.
Many immigrants traveled to the Americas around the 1800 and 1900s. Immigrants that came were mostly in search of better paying work and lifestyle. One of these immigrants would have to be Mary Mallon, whom was from the Irish descendent. According to Frederick Davis, “Mary Mallon worked as a domestic servant who then became a cook which offered better pay.” (Davis, Frederick. June 10, 2015 Typhoid Mary) Mallon was one of the first
Civil liberties is the individual rights and freedoms that government is obliged to protect, normally by not interfering in the exercise of these rights and freedoms. However, over the years the rights for the people have either have become open and free or it has become restrictive. The bill of rights in terms of scope in civil liberties protection has changed by three paths such three paths are increased in authority of federal government, the Supreme court shifted its interpretation of constitutional provisions in areas like freedom of speech, free religious practice, expansion and contraction of protections, and finally additional liberties to be protected beyond those specifically listed in the constitution.
Answer: Discrimination, right before the Revolutionary War, was raised to the highest tide in America’s societies. Many efforts were tried to reduce or alleviate the tense situation but ended up with failure, and this is the origin of two most important concepts in America which are Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Even though Civil Rights and Civil Liberties are both under the Constitution, they are different. Civil Rights are duties of government to ensure the equal treatment for everyone not regarding to their race, gender, age, or religious… while Civil Liberties are people’s freedoms to protect themselves from governmental action like unreasonable searches and seizures.
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
Terrorists attacks in America should not reduce or take away civil liberties because it unnecessarily increases government power, gives a false state of security, and goes against the concepts of liberty on which the United States was founded. In order to understand why these three things are important we must determine what are civil liberties.
Is privacy implied in any of our Constitutional amendments? Where? First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment
In October of 2008, Susan N. Harris was elected President of the American Civil Liberties Union, she also served for twenty consecutive years on the ACLU National Board of Directors, the General Counsel for ten years, and on the Executive Committee for sixteen years(American Civil Liberties Union, n.d.).
The common thread throughout all four arguments for civil liberties—historical backing, refined legality, obligatory morality, and economic responsibility—is that each is personal to citizens. The Fourth Amendment was written for American citizens. The laws enforced in this nation are for the people’s safety. The social contract is in place to balance the relationship between government and society. And the government security agencies are funded by the citizens through taxes. The initial two questions were “is government collection of personal data under the argument of national security just, and, if not, what would be an alternative to protecting American citizens?” The resolving answer is that the collection of data is unprotected, immoral,
The world is really messed up in today's generation. Many of the population around the world especially the United States Of America is forcing each individual to go by a certain government or leader. In the United States they have most individuals to be free and as independent they want to be but the one thing that the United states need to do is watch how many individuals use their free independent rights by doing ignorant things. The individuals that have independent rights do not know how to use their rights properly. They think their rights do not mean anything to other citizens and the authorities.
When the Founding Fathers wrote the US Constitution implementing each of the Amendments, it was in hopes of truly making the United States “the land of the free and home of the brave”. This was for everyone including minorities. At the time of making the laws of America, the founding fathers never knew that the overwhelming issues of slavery and unequal rights would have overtaken the United States of America, even so much that it still exists today. Even leaders who also had hopes of seeing equality in America like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Advocates for Women’s Rights to vote risked their lives in hopes of taking America from a one minded country to a fair minded country.
This has been a truly exciting year for the ACLU. Whether we’re talking about national wins, like winning the freedom to marry at the Supreme Court, or state-level wins, like California’s groundbreaking reforms to protect digital privacy and fight racial profiling, we have a lot to be proud of. As our closest allies and stalwarts for civil liberties, we would not have such cause for celebration without your vital partnership.
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
When the framers decided to create the Constitution, it was meant to be made for the people by the people. The difficult part about it was, as time went by, people were given more rights and were unjustly discriminated because of the past. This has happened in many cases throughout our countries history. Civil rights are a big part of our society and the past shows many ways that the civil rights of the citizens were taken from. In Unit 2 of the course, we learned three different ways the government can discriminate the people of the United States and the meticulous process it takes the government to discriminate. The different ways to discriminate are separated into three different classifications which are, Suspect classification, Quasi-Suspect classification, and Nonsuspect classification. Even though everyone has civil rights the government can sometimes discriminates to ensure the safety of the society. Which rarely happens. Discrimination is a big part of our government and well never be solved, but there are many reasons behind the most complicated subject in our society.
Legal historian Geoffrey Stones claims that the government of the United States has in the past overreacted in times of war and crisis, and has seriously violated many civil liberties. A democracy requires high levels of civil rights, liberties, and political openness in order for its citizens to fully participate in political election, and other governmental activities; however, the demands of national security usually require much less openness, secrecy, and limitations on civil rights and liberties. Throughout history there have been times were large numbers of individuals have experienced political discrimination and have had great difficulty exercising their civil liberties. Ethnic minority groups, and immigrants have been among the most targeted by the government in times of crisis. Under conditions of war, American civil liberties and political participation are usually curtailed and violated in many ways by the government, usually with the active support of some groups and people in society. Times of national security threat are often accompanied by what historian Richard Hofstadter calls “the paranoid style in American politics.” In other words, war produces preoccupation with internal threats to national security, and some groups with in society are targeted as security ricks because of their ethnic or political belief. This paper will briefly explore different times and crisis were civil liberties have been obstructed by the government for national security
While civil liberties are defined as what government is not allowed to do in order to ensure the freedom of its citizens, civil rights are everything that government must do to protect freedom and equality. Over the lifetime of the United States of America, this concept has gone through multiple changes. For the most part, this has been one of expansion. When we look back to the beginning of our nation, we see that anyone who wasn’t a white man was considered a second class citizen at best, and at worst not even human. Over the decades, activists have worked tirelessly to change this, through boycotts, mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, and not so politely reminding the Supreme Court about the Fourteenth Amendment, which required laws
The United States of America is viewed throughout the world as the symbol of freedom. Battling for its freedom from the beast of the 1700s Great Britain, the United States made sure to cherish its freedom with the ensured liberties given to the people that would evolve the nation into the super power of modern time. While many believe that the United States kept its promise of libraries throughout its time, in actuality its freedoms diminished during times of calamity and war by ways such as. Many civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and freedom of press were suppressed due to the passing of several acts during World War I.