Civil Rights Vs Civil Liberties

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This essay will clarify the difference between civil rights and civil liberties as well as discuss a few U.S Supreme Court cases that have made significant changes in society. One might define both as being similar to each other but they actually mean something very different from one another. Civil liberties are about basic rights of the people and civil rights are generally about equal treatment among individuals in society.

Civil rights and civil liberties are two basic terms that occasionally are utilized incidentally with each other. The two definition do concur with each other, but mean diverse things. Civil rights are “ the rules determining who may participate or be represented in collective decision-making processes …show more content…

The court case of Miranda v. Arizona in 1966 was ruled by the court under the fifth Amendment that states “ No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime … or in the Militia...(Lowi 133 pg). The court ruled that criminal subjects must be informed about their constitutional rights before police addressing and arrest. These rights involve the privilege to a lawyer and the privilege to be free of self implication under the fifth amendment. As a result of this court case is the requirement of law enforcement to read a suspect their Miranda Rights which states that anyone in custody of the police must Miranda rights before being questioned. This was one of the many significant court case that was made by the US Supreme Court, however absolutely won't be the last …show more content…

Due to the history of discrimination, numerous attempts in law making led up to the Civil right act of 1964. A landmark court case that supports the definition of civil rights is the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. The court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson was ruled as “separate but equal” and that racial inequality is constitutional. The jury concluded that this ruling “stimulates aggressions, more or less brutal, upon the admitted rights of colored citizens” (The leadership conference 1). The thought of racial discrimination was cruel mostly in the south, where African Americans were looked upon as useless in society. A second significant court case was Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 it shows a very similar pattern to the idea of the “ separate but equal” doctrine in schools primarily located in the south. African American children were denied educational opportunities in these separate facilities, and they wanted to have the same education as their white classmates. The court ruled that “ in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place” ( The leadership conference 1) . The division of educational resources was ruled as unconstitutional. The was the first crucial act toward the Civil rights movement. An outcome of this court case forced President Eisenhower to assign