1. Civil
Liberties
What are they?
Where are they found?

2. Civil Liberties
Are protections given to individuals against action of the government.
Usually the protections are written in a Constitution.

3. Civil Liberties
American civil liberties are set down in the Bill of Rights, as the first ten amendments are known.

4. Civil Liberties They include freedoms of: religion speech & press
assembly

5. Civil Liberties They also include protections:
against arbitrary searches
unfair trials
cruel punishments

6. Civil Liberties Interpreting what these rights mean is not easy.
The job of doing that in the U.S. falls to the Supreme Court.

7. Civil Liberties
For example, the court has decided that one’s right to free speech does not include the right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater.

8. Civil Liberties
In the end, interpreting the meaning of American civil liberties is a complicated balancing act between the needs of society and that of the individual.