Civil LIberties :: essays research papers

The terms are pretty much utilise synonymously, plainly Ill make the distinction that " culturedian liberties" means your conceptual adepts and "civil rights" means your legal 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 pursuit of happiness, free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, etc. " civilised rights" are the particulars of how those vague concepts are implemented in police force. Under this definition, our civil liberties dont change (except when we amend the constitution) but our civil rights change regularly as new laws are made or new interpretations are rule upon. Some examples of civil rights laws are-- Affirmative action rulings, which require prejudiced hiring of under-represented minority and gender groups-- The Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that public places provide access for plenty with disabilities-- Vermonts new-fashioned Civil Union statute, which allows homosexual couples to get married. None of those laws change the basic principle underlying civil liberty (the right to equal treatment is the bottom 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 required to do things or pay for things, which is where the controversy comes in. For example, blacks had the "right" to equal treatment in parentage 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 get business owner s to build ramps for wheelchairs, for example.