Discuss civil liberties and civil rights in the American system.

Civil Rights and Liberties

If one does turn on the news these days , one will notice that there is much to be said about civil rights and civil liberties in this day and age although most people , sadly , are only paying lip service to political talking points as opposed to truly possessing a solid knowledge in the subject matter that they speak . It is somewhat humorous that people speak of civil liberties and civil rights as if they are a modern creation or are exclusive to the United States . This is not

accurate as the origins of civil rights and liberties date far back to the European Renaissance and , in particular , with the writings of the great philosopher John Locke who in his work THE SOCIAL CONTRACT put forth the notion that human beings were born with certain inalienable rights and the most important of these rights was the right to liberty

Of course , this theory and ideology was a huge influence on Thomas Jefferson , one of the greatest political thinkers in all of human history . It is obvious in the Constitution that much of the civil rights and civil liberties that are documented in its passages must have surely gotten there through Jefferson 's influence . However , despite the prevalence of civil rights and liberties in the early founding of American history , may are not entirely familiar with what they exactly are . As such , clarification must be put forth to properly define the terms

What civil liberties refer to are those liberties that essentially protect a citizenry from the abuse of power by government . Much of this is drawn from Locke 's writings which essentially state that the purpose of the government is to increase the quality of life of the population as opposed to decreasing it . Such examples of abuse of power include encroaching on religious beliefs , stopping the citizenry from the right to assembly , abridging the freedom of speech , etc . In the United States these civil liberties are present and guaranteed in the constitution

Civil rights are essentially another side of the coin of civil liberties . In essence , civil rights do not so much refer to inalienable rights as much as they refer to rights bestowed upon citizens of a specific nation and are to be excised within the territorial boundaries of the nation . To a certain degree , civil rights and civil liberties are essentially the same creature , but civil rights are more spelled out within the letter of the law

For example , equal protection ' is a civil right under the law . As this is written in the constitution , it would refer to the fact that all citizens within a state will receive the same protection as no one group will be favored over another . For example , it would be a violation of equal protection is only those citizens who are wealthy would be read their Miranda rights while others would not be informed of such rights

Of course , this brings about the question in regards to what...