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Ricardo Diaz Dr. Kahlert English A 5 December 2009 Civil Right and Civil Liberties Civil liberties and civil rights are fundamental for everyday living. In today’s society both of these terms have different prospective; civil rights are considered to be natural rights. In other words, civil rights means that people have the right to be treated the same regardless of their race, gender, or religion. Even thought civil rights are guaranteed by law, this prospective took many years to be achieved.
For example, after the Civil War African and Americans were still treated badly; they got the worst jobs and were paid poorly. On the other hand, civil liberties are “Rights in freedom that protect an individual from the government” (Welch 404). Most civil liberties are found in the bill of rights; which are the first ten amendments of the constitution. Welch in Understanding American and California Government, states that “The declaration of independence proclaimed that all men are created equal” (448).
In other words, all men were not formed equal in several respects, but they should be considered equal before the law. However, back on the eighteenth century many Americans believed that people had natural rights by the virtue of being human. In Richard Randall’s Introduction to American Government class, he stated that “Americans are very tolerant of civil liberties and democratic values. They only support the ideas for the individuals, groups, and ideas other groups support” (Randall).
Civil liberties are important because it helps contain the power of the government to dictate how we behave. This ensures that our every day living is not interrupted by dependable statistics that may just try to intentionally cause harm. On the other hand, civil rights are also important because they protect us against unusual administrations whose goals are not to represent the people, but rather for their own sake. Next, the bill of rights was intended to prevent abuses of power by the natural government. In other words, the first ten amendments are fundamental for all American citizens.
The bill of rights is important to civil liberties because it does not allow the government to administrate our personal lives. In addition, Welch points out that “For many years the Supreme Court applied the bill of rights only to the federal government, not to the state governments” (405). This shows that, the bill of rights limited the procedures of the federal government only. Oh the other hand, civil rights had the equal protection clause on their side; eventually the equal protection clause would become the major guarantee that government would treat people equally.
On the contrary, our civil liberties include the right to free expression, the right to worship as we choose, and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Although humans have the right to free expression, government officials, and several other individual groups take advantage of this capability for their own sake. Similarly, civil rights gives people protection against discrimination. In other words, civil rights grant protection against discrimination from other groups of people.
Therefore, civil rights and civil liberties are important in every aspect of living. In other words, no branch of govern should be permitted to take these virtues away from human beings. Men and women were created equal, and that statement should stay the same before the law. Work Cited Welch, Susan. Understanding American and California Government. 12. Ohio: United States print , 2009. Randall, Richard. Introduction to American Government. Lectures. 10 Oct. 6 Nov. 2009.