Civil LIberties :: essays research papers

The terms argon pretty much used synonymously, further Ill stick the distinction that "civic liberties" nitty-gritty your conceptual rights and " cultivated rights" means your jural rights.In those terms, "civil liberties" are your personal rights as spelled out in the Constitution and other founding documents, such as the right to life, liberty, the by-line of happiness, free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, etc. "Civil rights" are the particulars of how those shadowy concepts are implemented in law. Under this definition, our civil liberties dont change (except when we break the constitution) but our civil rights change regularly as new laws are made or new interpretations are ruled upon. Some examples of civil rights laws are-- affirmatory action rulings, which require preferential hiring of under-represented minority and sex groups-- The Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that human beings places provide acc ess for people with disabilities-- Vermonts recent Civil uniting statute, which allows homosexual couples to get married. None of those laws change the basics underlying civil liberty (the right to equal discourse is the basis of all of them), but they have a big effect on peoples legal rights. The philosophical basis for most controversial civil rights law (like those above) is the idea that a "right" doesnt exist at all if it cant be enforced or exercised. Enforcing and exercising rights often means that other people are needed to do things or pay for things, which is where the controversy comes in. For example, blacks had the "right" to equal treatment in job hiring before affirmative action, but had no means to enforce equal representation in the job place until Affirmative Action laws took effect. And disabled people had the "right" to go to any public place, but until the ADA took effect, they had no means of compelling business owners to general an atomy ramps for wheelchairs, for example.