Chapter 3 - Civil Liberties

Civil Liberties

Civil liberties are the restraints on government found in the Bill of Rights and the "Due Process" Clause of the 14th Amendment Civil liberties are primarily concerned with individual freedoms The Bill of Rights might have been more appropriately called the Bill of Liberties. While the seven articles of the Constitution express what the government /can/ do, the ten amendments contained in the Bill of Rights express what the government /cannot/ do.

I

Civil liberties protect individuals from abuses of power by the government.

III

Civil liberties protections have sometimes been extended to apply to state governments as well.

Civil Rights

Civil rights, on the other hand, protect citizens from discrimination by the government or other citizens, and they are rooted in the "Equal Protection" Clause of the 14th Amendment. Civil rights are primarily concerned with equality of citizenship.

First Amendment

Core Protections: Freedoms of Religion, -"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, [establishment clause]..." Lemon Test: Supreme Court standard for what prohibiting government involvement with religion -"... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof... [Free Exercise Clause]..." Sherbert Test: Supreme Court test for weighing government interests against individual religious practice Speech, "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech.." -Political speech and symbolic speech is strongly protected -Historically limited in war time but less so today -Miller Test for Obscenity: Supreme Court test for when speech can be banned as obscene Press, -"Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom...of the press" -Prior restraint -Supreme Court has generally sided with press over gov't (Pentagon Papers) Assembly, and Petition. "Congress shall make no law...abridging ...or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." -Protections are pretty firmly secure -Limitations in wartime are largely in the past Contemporary Relevance: school prayer, campaign advertising, Wikileaks, Occupy Wall Street

Heller v. District of Columbia

District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held in a 5-4 decision that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution applies to federal enclaves and protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home. The decision did not address the question of whether the Second Amendment extends beyond federal enclaves to the states which was addressed later by McDonald v. Chicago (2010). It was the first Supreme Court case to decide whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.

Eighth Amendment

No Cruel and Unusual Punishment (death penalty, prison overcrowding, sentencing of minors)

Fifth Amendment

No Double Jeopardy or Self-Incrimination, Rights of Due Process and Grand Jury Screening (right to remain silent, "pleading the Fifth," federal benefits for same-sex marriages)

Third Amendment

No Quartering of Troops (privacy rights)

Fourth Amendment

No Unreasonable Searches and Seizures, Requirement of Warrants and Probable Cause (War on Drugs, stop-and-frisk policies, NSA surveillance)

Second Amendment

Protection: Right to Bear Arms -"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." -The meaning of this has been highly disputed, especially since the 1970s -Heller v. District of Columbia Relevance: assault weapons bans, background checks, concealed-carry laws

Seventh Amendment

Right to a Jury Trial in Civil Cases (rule of law, legitimacy of courts in non-criminal suits)

Ninth Amendment

Rights Not Enumerated in Constitution' (abortion rights, assisted suicide)

Sixth Amendment

Rights to a Speedy and Public Trial, Impartial Jury, Counsel, Notification of Charges, and Confrontation of Witnesses (jury duty, public defenders, subpoenas, changes of venue in high-profile cases)

Criminal Rights

Rights to due process, fair trial, and an attorney as well as protections against search and seizure and cruel and unusual punishment are found in the 4th-8th Amendments

Tenth Amendment

States' Rights (Defense of Marriage Act, medical marijuana, Tea Party movement)

Lemon Test

The "Lemon test" provides three criteria or prongs for weighing the constitutionality of any government action that involves religion. The government's actions must have: 1): A legitimate secular (denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis) purpose. 2):Not have the primary effect of advancing or prohibiting religion 3): not result in excessive government entanglement with religion.

Sherbert Test

The "Sherbert test" requires that justices consider certain questions in determining whether the government has violated an individual's free exercise of religion. The court must ask: 1): does the person have a claim involving a serious religious belief? 2):Does the government pose a burden on the person's ability to act on that belief? IF YES, then the government must prove 1): The government action furthers a "compelling state interest" 2):The government has taken action that is the least restrictive or burdensome to religion in promoting that state interest.

II

The Bill of Rights defines the core of civil liberties protections, and Supreme Court interpretations define the limits of these protections.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

The Court struck down sections of the Campaign Reform Act of 2002 that banned political advertising by corporations, citing First Amendment protections. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority, "Because speech is an essential mechanism of democracy—it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people—political speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it by design or inadvertence." Quoting a separate case as precedent, Kennedy elaborated that political speech is "indispensable to decision-making in a democracy, and this is no less true because the speech comes from a corporation."9 As a lesson in civil liberties, Citizens United is significant because it suggests that the Supreme Court not only views political speech as a crucial form of free speech in American democracy, it also holds political speech by corporations as equally protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

IV

The interpretation of individual liberties has changed over time.

Limitations on Freedom of Speech

defamation, obscenity, fighting words, and commercial speech.

Defamation

speech, spoken or written, that is untruthful and can be proved to have malicious intent that may be harmful to the subject. A written statement of such nature can be punished as libel, while an oral statement can be punished as slander.