Civil Liberties

Issues Civil Liberties are significant issues because there is often conflict between groups for rights guaranteed in the Constitution First Amendment “rights”= issues Rights of the accused are found in the Bill of Rights

Background of Civil Liberties issues Framers intent 1. Limit Fed Power & Validate state Constitutions 2. Constitution- What Government Can do not what it cannot. 3. Government “can’t” do = Fed. government only. What problem does this create?

Civil Liberties Issues

The Bill of rights contains competing rights.

Government officials have been successful at restricting rights at wartime.(Limit a minority)

Cultural Issues Mixing of different cultures has caused individuals to feel offended Jews at Christmas on Government property Monolingual schools in Spanish areas Healthcare to illegal aliens

First Amendment

Freedom of Expression & National Security (press & prior restraint) - Clear & Present danger Selective Incorporation - Gitlow v. New York Defining Speech - Libel, FCC- Obscenity, Symbolic Speech

1st Amendment Defining a Person- Individual vs. Corporations Young Adults- School Newspapers Church & State - Free-Exercise Clause - Establishment Clause

Rights of the Accused

Rights of the accused Self-Incrimination Exclusionary rule (Mapp v. Ohio) states Search & seizure - Public Safety & Immediate control - Miranda v. Arizona

Civil Rights

Background Slow Progress Whites were politically dominant Southerners feared competition Whites dominated politics and process Fed. Action for equality, unfavorable

Equality, How’d They do it? Publicize issues Forget Congress go to Court

Courts 14th Amendment- Plessy v. Ferguson - NAACP 1. Obviously unequal 2. Not-so Unequal 3. Inherently unequal

Brown v. Board of Education Implementation Rationale Desegregation vs. Integration

Congress & Civil Rights Public Opinion & Majoritarian issue - Sit-ins, freedom rides, nonviolence, militant riots Good vs. Bad, on the agenda

Women & Equal Rights

Women & Equal Rights The Draft- Rostker v. Goldberg Sexual Harassment Abortion

Affirmative Action