Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Chapter Review

The Origin of the Bill of Rights Lies in Those Who Opposed the Constitution

1. Despite the insistence of Alexander Hamilton that a bill of rights was both unnecessary and dangerous, adding a list of explicit rights was the most important item of business for the First Congress in 1789.
2. The Bill of Rights would have been more aptly named the "Bill of Liberties," because it is made up of provisions that protect citizens from improper government action.
3. Civil rights did not become part of the Constitution until 1868 with the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, which sought to provide for each citizen "the equal protection of the laws."

Dual Citizenship Was Defined by Barron v. Baltimore

1. In 1833, the Supreme Court found that the Bill of Rights limited only the national government and not state governments.
2. Although the language of the Fourteenth Amendment seems to indicate that the protections of the Bill of Rights apply to state governments as well as the national government, for the remainder of the nineteenth century the Supreme Court (with only one exception) made decisions as if the Fourteenth Amendment had never been adopted.
3. As of 1961, only the First Amendment and one clause of the Fifth Amendment had been "selectively incorporated" into the Fourteenth Amendment. In the 1960s, however, most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights were incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment and applied to the states.

The Fourteenth Amendment Created the Doctrine of Incorporation

1. The due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment served as the basis for later Supreme Court rulings that applied most of the Bill of Rights to the states in the process of incorporation.
2. Not all ten amendments have been applied to the states, as some are of greater importance than others.

The First Amendment Guarantees Freedom of Religion

1. The establishment clause and free exercise clause of the First Amendment have led to several court cases addressing the role of religion in public life.

The First Amendment and Freedom of Speech and the Press Assure Free Exchange of Ideas

1. Although freedom of speech and freedom of the press hold an important place in the Bill of Rights, the extent and nature of certain types of expression are subject to constitutional debate.

The Second Amendment Protects the Right to Bear Arms in a Militia

1. Constitutionally, the Second Amendment protects citizens' rights to bear arms when citizens are called into militia service by the government.

Rights of the Criminally Accused Are Based on Due Process of Law

1. The purpose of due process is to equalize the playing field between the accused individual and the all-powerful state.

The Right to Privacy Is the Right to Be Left Alone

1. In the case of Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court found a right of privacy in the Constitution. This right was confirmed and extended in 1973 in the case of Roe v. Wade.

Civil Rights Are Protections by the Government

1. From 1896 until the end of World War II, the Supreme Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause was not violated by racial distinction as long as the facilities were equal.
2. After World War II, the Supreme Court began to undermine the separate but equal doctrine, eventually declaring it unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education.
3. The Brown decision marked the beginning of a difficult battle for equal protection in education, employment, housing, voting, and other areas of social and economic activity.
4. The first phase of school desegregation was met with such massive resistance in the South that, ten years after Brown, fewer than 1 percent of black children in the South were attending schools with whites.
5. Title VII of the civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed job discrimination by all private and public employers, including governmental agencies that employed more than fifteen workers.
6. In 1965, Congress significantly strengthened legislation protecting voting rights by barring literacy and other tests as a condition for voting in southern states. In the long run, the laws extending and protecting voting rights could prove to be the most effective of all civil rights legislation, because increased political participation by minorities has altered the shape of American politics.

The Civil Rights Struggle Was Extended to Other Disadvantaged Groups

1. The protections won by the African American civil rights movement spilled over to protect other groups as well, including women, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, disabled Americans, and gays and lesbians.

Affirmative Action Attempts to Right Past Wrongs

1. By seeking to provide compensatory action to overcome the consequences of past discrimination, affirmative action represents the expansion of the goals of groups championing minority rights.
2. Affirmative action has been a controversial policy. Opponents charge that affirmative action creates group rights and establishes quotas, both of which are inimical to the American tradition. Proponents of affirmative action argue that the long history of group discrimination makes affirmative action necessary and that efforts to compensate for some bad action in the past are well within the federal government's purview.
3. Recent conflicts over affirmative action have raised questions about what is effective political action.

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