Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, Essay Example

Civil rights are rights that citizens have against private forms of discrimination, so when some individuals are favored over others, civil rights find impingement. Civil liberties are rights that citizens have against the government, so only the government can violate a person’s civil liberties. Civil liberties came into being when states refused to ratify the U.S. Constitution until a Bill of Rights was added to it. Civil liberties, as enumerated in the Bill of Rights, guarantees citizens the rights of speech, religion, and unreasonable searches, from among a larger list of liberties. Civil rights have been far more controversial as they have come about in our nation’s history. For example, when a person is discriminated against because of race or gender, his or her civil rights have been violated.

From among the Founding Fathers, the Anti-Federalist faction, led by Thomas Jefferson, felt that the Bill of Rights were essential to the work of the Constitution. He and others felt that, with an illiterate populous, the government might try to exert too much control if specific provisions for citizens were not included as an addendum to their overall constitutional work.

Here is a list of five constitutionally protected rights that are not enumerated in the Constitution enter personal contracts. 3. The right to own a home. 4. The right to have an abortion. 5. The right to die.

The Supreme Court has affirmed these rights on the following occasions:

1. The right to privacy was upheld in The right to marry was upheld in 1967 with the important Loving v. Virginia ruling that validated the marriage of a Black woman to a White man, striking down a state law that banned such a practice.
2. The right to enter into personal contracts was upheld in 1905 in Lochner v. New York, a ruling that determined that contractual liberty was implicit in the due process clause of the Amendment 14 of the U.S. Constitution.
3. The right to own a home was upheld in 1988 in Frisby v. Shultz when the court argued that the right to picket in a public place is trumped when it occurs in a residential neighborhood, thus emphasizing the sanctity of personal property.
4. The right to have an abortion was upheld in 1972 with the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling that extended the right of privacy to include a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy through abortion.
5. The right to die was upheld in 1990 in Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health, a case that concluded that the right to die when the patient is terminally ill or in great pain is a liberty protected under the Due Process Clause of Amendment 4.