POLI 2051 Lecture : Lecture Ch15 16
Document Summary
Civil liberties - freedoms guaranteed to the individual they take the form of negative restraints on government. Examples: freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, etc. Civil rights - they declare what government must do or provide it is generally a claim upon state action, usually asserted by a group, usually the. Examples: rights to vote, right to a jury trail, housing and employment have been included more recently. Civil liberties: the bill of rights in context. The idea of a national or federal bill of rights had very little meaning initially - it was seen as limiting action of the national government, not the state governments. And since authority over individual rights was exercised primarily by state governments, the bill of rights did not significantly affect the course of the american politics for the first 125 years after it was adopted. Most state constitutions contained their own guarantees of rights and liberties, and these constitutions were interpreted in state courts.
