Unalienable Rights and Civil Liberties First Amendment Freedoms

Unalienable Rights and Civil Liberties: First Amendment Freedoms CHAPTER 19 SECTIONS 1 & 2

Commitment to Freedom Our country was founded on the ideas that individuals have the right to certain freedoms. Some of these freedoms were included in the Constitution Article 1, Sections 9 and 10 These are the specific powers denied to the congress and the states. Other rights were left out on purpose.

• Commitment to Freedom Eventually, in order to ratify the Constitution, a compromise was reached that included adding a Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights gave us both Civil Liberties and Civil Rights. Civil liberties are protections against government Civil Rights are positive acts of government that seek to make constitutional guarantees a reality for all people.

Limited Government Guarantees of personal freedoms are throughou the Constitution Dictator v. Democracy Dictator has unlimited power whereas in a democracy government is strictly limited

Our rights are relative, however. They only extend as far as they do not infringe on the rights of others.

When Rights Conflict EXAMPLE : Freedom of the Press v. Fair Trail Sheppard v. Maxwell p. 534

So Who do these Rights Cover? The Supreme Court has often held that “persons” covers aliens as well as citizens. Aliens are people who live in a country, but are not citizens of that country. Not all rights are given to aliens, though. Ex. Relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII.

The Bill of Rights applies to the Federal Government, not the individual states. Ex. Grand juries are required by the 5 th amendment, but are only used in about ½ of the states today.

The 14 th Amendment Remember the Bill of Rights applies to the Federal Government but does that mean that states deny basic rights. The answer is in the 14 th Amendments Due Process clause This modified the Bill of Rights by forcing states to give due process to individuals before depriving them of Life, liberty, or property. The Supreme Court has often said that this means no state can deny to any person any right that is “basic or essential to the American concept of ordered liberty. ”

The 14 th Amendment While the 14 th Amendment does pertain to most of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court has not Applied it to the following: 2 nd Amendment Right to keep and bear arms 3 rd Amendment Quartering troops 5 th Amendment Grand Jury 7 th Amendment Trial by jury in civil cases

Freedom of Religion The Constitution has two guarantees of religious freedom. The 1 st Amendment Establishment Clause prohibits the government from establishing a religion. This clause is where we get the term “Separation of Church and State. ” The 14 th Amendment Free Exercise Clause prohibits the government from interfering in the free exercise of religion.