There have been many issues of discrimination and unequal treatment for hundreds of years. It has only been until recently that those who have been brought down are now getting a chance to have their voices heard. This was all possible through the implementation of civil rights and civil liberties. These rights and liberties are protected by the U.S. government in a variety of ways. I will also be diving into the distinct levels of scrutiny and how they are used in our court system.
To start, I would like to define civil rights and civil liberties individually. Civil rights are pledges to treat each person equally regardless of race, gender, and sex. Whereas civil liberties are limits on the government that prohibit them from legally intruding on freedoms granted to American citizens. A similarity that can be compared between the two is that both civil rights and civil liberties serve to protect citizens and treat them fairly. Another similarity that can be identified between the two is that the Bill of Rights protects both civil liberties and rights. Civil liberties are protected by the Fourteenth Amendment under the due process clause. This clause declares that no state can, “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Additionally, in Artice 1, Section 9, these liberties are also protected under the habeas corpus and the restriction of passing bills of attainder and ex post facto laws. On the other hand, civil rights are protected by the equal protection clause under the Fourteenth Amendment. This clause claims that no state can, “deny to any person to its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws.” Another protection can be highlighted in the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment, which demands that the government treat people equally.
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Moving forward, some many restrictions and obligations were put into effect by exercising new civil rights liberties. For instance, the Fifteenth Amendment requires that African American men have the right to vote. Additionally, the Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote. The twenty-fourth amendment eliminated poll taxes, which made it much easier for black people to vote. Conversely, within civil liberties, it can be seen within the First Amendment that states are expected not to prevent citizens from practicing a religion even if it comes off as misleading. To add onto this, the eight amendment states, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” I want to elaborate on the latter portion of this section. States cannot torture anybody no matter the circumstances. The death penalty is a controversial topic, however nobody under the age of eighteen may be subject to the death penalty, and no penalty may be exercised unless a person was killed in the act of a crime.
As mentioned earlier, there are a variety of levels used in the court of law when deeming discriminatory laws or regulations unconstitutional. There are three types of scrutiny which are intermediate scrutiny, strict scrutiny, and affirmative action. Intermediate scrutiny involves having the government illustrate why unequal treatment was necessary in a specific court case, rather than the individual who was mistreated. Strict scrutiny pertains to the government having to justify why they treated a group of people differently for governmental interests. Lastly, affirmative action involves the government providing new policies and programs that will benefit those who have been discriminated against in the past.
All in all, civil rights and liberties has drastically improved the lives of citizens when looking back at the discrimination people have faced in American history. There have been many laws and regulations set into place to ensure that every American is treated with respect and equity. Over the last hundred years, these regulations have brought equal treatment to African Americans, women, and Indigenous groups. Overall, many protections within the Constitution promise citizens that their rights and liberties will never be stripped from them. There is even a legal system for the basis of discrimination to ensure that each person regardless of age, race, and sex is treated fairly.
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