Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Introduction

The term civil rights mean the rights and freedoms enjoyed by the individual as a citizen in a community or state or country. These rights include freedom of expression and freedom of the press and religion and freedom of ownership (Harold 2004). It also involves the rights of the individual's right to equality with others, whether they are individuals, or groups, especially before the government. The constitutions of most countries include those on the documents concerned with the civil rights of citizens showing the fundamental freedoms and rights (Smith, Edward, Levine 1988, pp. 294).

Civil liberties consist of the legal rules governing the person's position in the state (Holmes, 2005, pp. 381). These include the right to vote, freedom of speech, freedom of information, the right of free, equal, and regular elections. The right to form political organizations, including political parties, etc

Discussion

Bill of Rights

The doctrine of incorporation, also called “The incorporation of the Bill of Rights” is the procedure through which the courts in the USA have employed parts of the U.S.A. Bill of Rights to the laws in the states. Towards the end of 19th century, the said Bill was only applicable to the federal government in the USA. However, after the development of the doctrine of incorporation, a number of provisions, which were originally a part of the Bill of Rights, are applicable to the local and state governments, by the virtuousness of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution of USA (Donald, Bill, John 2007, pp. 301).

Importance of the Doctrine of Incorporation

In the USA, the Supreme Court usually allows the different states to limit a basic right only in a scenario, if the relevant offices have a convincing reason, and if the applicable law was trimmed to fulfill an allowable intention. A few judges have always quenched that there was a shortage of a non-subjective criterion for judgment, which would describe the difference between what are the civil rights, and which reasons were obliging and which were just intellectual (Donald, Bill , John 2007).

The doctrine of incorporation has flourished the rights of the people of America; and it has managed to transfer a large amount of authority, which was previously resided in the governments of the state after the independence of America, to the Supreme Court. The decisions, which were pertaining to the power of the police, confessions, searches, freedom of speech, prayers in school, Ten Commandments displays, topless dancing, vagrancy laws, abortion and the capital punishment, have been taken out of the hands of lawmakers in the states and the judges, and these powers have been turned over to the Supreme Court in the U.S.A. 

The Civil Rights Movement

The campaigning movement to liberate African American U.S. citizens from legal and institutional oppression is often called the civil rights movement. The rights for which the movement fought included direct rights to political and legal participation but also rights to full and equal participation in public activities that are not, at first glance, overtly political. The range of activities ...