Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Now, many believe that these two things are very similar and often get them confused, but they consistent of many differences. That make them into their own distinct topic; lets us talk about some of these differences. One of the first major difference is how Civil Liberties are not absolute meaning that they can be infringed if a national threat to security, public safety, or conflict with another right arises. An example of this would be the “war on terrorism”, in which the government began tapping into the cellular devices of individuals to be able to impede any more actions such as September 11.

Things like this are given the term “trade-offs” this also just due to the fact that politics are very conflictual. A couple more differences are that Civil Liberties include the basic freedoms and liberties such as: the right to privacy, right to jury trial, right of freedom of religion, the right of freedom of speech, the freedom of press, the right to assemble peacefully, and also the right to vote.

These are just a few from various others; they also restrict what the government can do to you, well that was just the national government, the state did not have any restrictions until later, and we will touch up on that later. Now, that we have talked about the Liberties; let us go on to Civil Rights. Which are protection from discrimination these get applied to both the government and other individuals.

So where can you find these two subjects in the constitution? Starting off with Civil liberties they are rooted in the Bill of Rights and in the “due process” protection under the 14th amendment.

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Meanwhile Civil rights are under the “equal protection” clause of the 14th amendment. The importance of the 14th amendment is because what gave the Bill of Rights protection from state as well, as it is stated in the Constitution “All persons…No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States…” through statutory authority which means laws adopted by Congress or a state legislature are implanted through selective incorporation.

This allows a right by right, or case by case which addresses evolving standards. So that states cannot infringe people’s rights, why’ll constitutional authority is all in the constitution. So, rights and liberties that are specifically in the constitution must be respected unless any threat to security happens or what the president states is a threat to national security. For instance, with snake practices at church masses, when a group of members appealed claiming their rights had been impinged. The court decided that public safety was far more important than religious practice. Even though we are protected is there actually any one or any group of people ensuring that we receive what should be granted in the constitution? In fact, we do, starting off with the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU which was founded in 1920; their purpose is defend and preserve our rights and liberties stated in laws and the Constitution under the Bill of Rights.

The department of labor can have a say as they have set one of their goals to be able to stop discrimination in forms of employment. The office of faith based and neighborhood partnerships, Congress, the president, also the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Council of Disability, and the United States commission on Civil Rights; are just a few. Which listing them out shows that a lot of groups and people are more likely to ensuring Civil Rights. Some of the causes for this difference in representation between the two things could be that Civil Rights are clearly stated in the Bill of Rights meanwhile Civil liberties are a bit vaguer and happen with every court case. The majority of court decisions that define American civil liberties are based on the Bill of Rights. This makes it seem that the government uses the Bill of Rights as a base in a way to set our liberties so that we do not have any government action that is demeaning or discriminatory. This can also be seen as a check on the government itself by the people, if the individual has a good argument. We can get this conclusion from how with the power to vote we can shape what the government can look like. Not just that but we can express our feelings and can cause the government to hear, if we do so correctly.