When the founders of the United States of America got together to write the Constitution they anticipated certain issues that might occur between the Federal Government and the individual citizen. It was these concerns that caused them to include certain civil liberties in the Constitution. A civil liberty is an individual right protected by the Constitution against the powers of the government. (Sidlow and Henschen 2001, p. 470).
After leaving the command of Britain, the citizens of the colonies were against big centralized government, so when it was decided that the Articles of Confederation wasn’t sufficient, and that a Constitution would be drafted, it was also decided, mostly by those known as Anti-Federalist, that civil liberties must be included. Though civil liberties were put in law over 200 years ago, over time they have been challenged up until the present day. Although civil liberties were recognized by the federal government, it took Amendment XIV to incorporate civil liberties into state governments. It is said within that no state ‘shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,’ (Sidlow and Henschen 2001, p. 81).
This shows helps to show how important civil liberties are to the American people.
The main source of civil liberties is found within the first ten amendments to the constitution also known as the Bill of Rights. The purpose of the Bill of Rights is to protect the individual citizen from certain actions of the US Government. Amendments I-VIII deal directly with civil liberties such as freedom of speech, and the right to a fair trial. Freedom of Speech is not absolute though.
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There are some types of speech that are more protected under the 1 st Amendment than others. Everyday speech and symbolic speech is actually more protected than commercial and seditious speech. Freedom of religion which is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution is a civil liberty that hold very high value in the United States. Amongst other civil liberties that we take advantage of daily is the right to a impartial jury, which is guaranteed in Amendment VI. It is through this amendment that gag orders are allowed, which is to deter from information getting out to the public, that might cause a case to become impartial to the defendant. Amendment VI can also affect the location of a given trial.
In the case of Timothy McVeigh, there was no way that he could have received an impartial trial in the state of Oklahoma due to the severity and publicity of the case, so it was then decided that the case must be tried in another location. From the protection of unreasonable search and seizures to freedom of press, civil liberties as such are put in place in order to make the people feel protected and safe from the powers of our government. One of the main reasons for the colonists voyage to the New World, was to be able to practice free religion. We are all entitled to practice whatever religion we please. As with most civil liberties, we as citizens are granted these civil liberties, but they can not infringe on the liberties of others. Although we have the right to free religion, it would not be okay to participate in things such as murder even if it was part of your religion due to the fact that murder infringes on the rights of others.
In order to proceed the citizens from an official religion freedom of speech was added as a protection. The Establishment Clause which is located in the 1 st Amendment, forbids the government to establish an official religion. (Sidlow and Henschen 2001, p. 82).
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"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." - Amendment I (LIVELY, 1999) "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against ...
Although we are protected to practice free religion the are still controversies over the issue. One such controversy involves the separation of church and state.
This came to the forefront in the case Engel v. Vitale in 1962, where it was discussed whether or not there should be prayer in schools, and whether or not prayer in schools violated people First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court ruled that prayers said in school did in fact violate the Establishment Clause and therefore took prayer out of schools. Although the ruling was made so long ago the controversy still continues.
A current over civil liberties is whether or not allowing schools to take a moment of silence for prayer and meditation violates the Establishment Clause. This was ruled unconstitutional in 1985. The interpretation of freedom of religion and the idea of separation of church and state is one that will be debated for years to come, due to the difficulty and emotions that run behind it. The Supreme Court plays a major role in interpreting civil liberties. When there is a dispute as to whether or not certains laws with the Constituation and causes an infringement on someone civil liberties it is up to the Supreme Court to decide whether a specific law is constitutional. Much like the case of prayer in schools, the courts have had to make many decisions on behalf of citizens deciding that civil liberties were being ignored.
The Supreme Court has made many decisions concerning civil liberties such as the rights of the accused. In the case of Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 it was ruled buy the court under Amendment V that ‘Prior to any questioning, the person must be warned the he / she has the right to remain silent… .’ (Sidlow and Henschen 2001, p. 99).
This was one landmark decision that was made by the US Supreme Court, but certainly will not be the last one.
Although most Americans would agreed that civil liberties should be to all of US citizens, there are still many people who would deny certain civil liberties like free speech to some people due to other circumstances. When discussing whether or not an atheist should be allowed to make a speech 83. 5 percent of Westerners and only 69. 3 percent of Southerners agreed that they should be allowed to make a speech. In all a total of 24. 7 percent of Americans say that an atheist should be denied the right to free speech.
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(Corbet and Norrander 2001, p. 67).
Same in the case of whether or not someone who believes that African Americans are genetically inferior, should be allowed to give a speech. 63. 2 percent of all Americans feel that someone in the given group should not be able to give a speech.
When broken down by race 66% of white people would allow racist speech where only only 54% of African American’s would allow such speech. Lastly when looking at someone who is Communist, 31. 6 percent of the people feel that they should not be able to give a speech, (Corbett and Norrander 2001, p. 69).
With these results we can obviously see that some people feel that civil liberties should not be to all citizens of the United States. Civil liberties are still very important to most Americans and through the protection of the Constituation we are able to reap the benefits of civil liberties every day.
