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Civil Rights Vs Civil Liberties Essay

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Without our civil rights and liberties provided to us through the Constitution, freedom and equality wouldn’t be as attainable as it is today. Our liberties and rights are what have shaped our nation into the country it is today through different revolutions. Despite being viewed as similar terms and often used interchangeably, civil liberties and civil rights both serve to provide different types of protection to people living within the United States.
Civil liberties are defined as “being limitations on government power, intended to protect freedoms that governments may not legally intrude on” (108). Although civil liberties are often confused to be the freedom guaranteed to the citizens of the United States, in actuality, they are the restrictions made to our government in order to achieve the freedom desired by the people. In order to grasp a firmer understanding of what civil …show more content…

These civil liberties restrict the government from revoking one’s freedom through amendments such as the first to the seventh. Thus, the Bill of Rights, as implied by the authors of the textbook, is crucial to protecting citizen’s freedom and prevent the potential corruption and misuse of government power. On the other hand, civil rights were created to provide equality. Although liberties provide protection from the government, civil rights were created to protect people from discrimination despite their gender, age, national origin, race and more. Civil liberties are more difficult to define due to changes in perception as time goes by. For example, the Voting Rights Act was passed on 1965 while the bill of rights was passed in 1689 which goes to show that equality is not always as quick to be acknowledged (37, 167). One may infer that

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The ratification of the US Bill of Rights took place in 1789. The Bill of Rights supply citizens of the US with inalienable rights that they are born with and acquire if they immigrate. Since it was ratified, there have been several occasions in which these rights have been infringed upon during times of conflict, in which the United States government attempts to shield the nation from conflicting issues inside or even outside the country because of fear. The government believes that this unconstitutional action to restrict citizens’ rights must be done to protect citizens of the United States, but in an attempt to protect others, many become mistreated.

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Civil liberties are reason for us being so free in American. It protects us from the government getting to powerful over our amendments that are in the constitution. Our federalism government must be following our civil liberties, or they can get in trouble for violating them. That is why they were put into the Constitution the bill of rights to protect our freedom and to prevent the government from being too powerful over the people which is not allowed in federalism since it has two main party’s that make up the political system. Civil Liberties was created to make everyone be equal and to prevent them

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