Unit 3 (13-18%) Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

The Bill of Rights

• The U.S. Constitution includes a Bill of Rights specifically designed to protect individual liberties and rights.

• Bill of Rights: First ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Includes freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly, right to bear arms, and rights of the accused.

• The application of the Bill of Rights is continuously interpreted by the courts. What constitutes speech? Freedom of religion, what is an unreasonable search, etc.

• Civil liberties are constitutionally established guarantees and freedoms that protect citizens, opinions, and property against arbitrary government interference.

First Amendment: Freedom of Religion

• The interpretation and application of the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses reflect an ongoing debate over balancing majoritarian religious practice and free exercise,

Establishment Clause:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” This prevents the federal government from supporting an official religion.

Free Exercise Clause

prevents the federal government from interfering with its citizens’ religious beliefs and practices. The Supreme Court has upheld some limits on religious practices that conflict with secular laws, such as religious drug use or polygamy.

Engel v.Vitale (1962)

which declared school sponsorship of religious activities/prayer violates the establishment clause

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)

which held that compelling Amish students to attend school past the eighth grade violates the free exercise clause

Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)

• in which the court ruled that public school students could wear black armbands in school to protest the Vietnam War.

• Efforts to balance social order and individual freedom are reflected in interpretations of the First Amendment that limit speech

• Time, place, and manner regulations

• Defamatory, offensive, and obscene statements and gestures

• Schenck v. United States (1919): required court case, speech that creates a “clear and present danger” can be limited

In New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

• the Supreme Court bolstered the freedom of the press, establishing a “heavy presumption against prior restraint” even in cases involving national security.

Prior restraint:

• Government censorship of free expression by preventing publication or speech before it takes place. Courts will likely protect media freedom of press.

Second Amendment:

• the right to bear arms

first amendment

freedom of:

• religion

• press

• speech

• petition

In both District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald v. Chicago (2010)

• the Supreme Court struck down laws that placed restrictions on gun ownership. The majority in both cases argued that gun control legislation gave the government too much power and violated individual liberties.

• The current Supreme Court has been consistent in its commitment to individual liberty, upholding an individual’s right to own a gun with little gov help

Eighth Amendment

Protects individuals from the government enforcing excessive bails or fines, or from inflicting cruel and unusual punishment.

Fourth Amendment:

• Protects individuals’ homes, persons, and belongings from unreasonable search and seizure.

• In general balance between liberty and security has been challenged by laws and executive action

Selective Incorporation

• Supreme Court applies the provisions of the Bill of Rights (which are the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Using the doctrine of selective incorporation

• the Supreme Court has ruled that many provisions of the Bill of Rights apply to the states. This represents a limiting of state power by federal oversight; any state attempt to regulate individual rights could potentially be ruled unconstitutional by the Court.

• Not every right or provision of the Bill of Rights has been incorporated to the state