CIVIL

LIBERTIES
Chapter 4
 Learning Objectives
2

4.1 Identify what civil liberties are

4.2 Explain why civil liberties are limited in times of crisis
4.3 Distinguish what rights of expression the First
Amendment protects
4.4 Determine what religious freedoms the First Amendment
protects
4.5 Outline how the right to bear arms has been
interpreted
4.6 Describe what protections the Bill of Rights provides
to those accused of crimes
4.7 Assess what constitutes the right to privacy

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 What Are Civil Liberties?
3

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

so fundamental that they are outside the authority
of government to regulate
Balancing Liberty and Order
 What Are Civil Liberties?
4

Constitutional Rights
The articles of the Constitution protect civil
liberties in all of the following:
writ of habeas corpus.
Right of individuals who have been arrested and jailed to
go before a judge, who determines whether their detention
is legal
ex post facto laws.
bills of attainder.
trial by jury.
 What Are Civil Liberties?
5

Bill of Rights: First 10 amendments

The Bill of Rights placed into law some of the
natural or inalienable rights that Thomas
Jefferson spoke about in the Declaration of
Independence
 What Are Civil Liberties?
6

The Bill of Rights and the States

Originally applied to federal government only
Started to apply to states end of 19th century
Fourteenth Amendment
Ratified in 1868. Provided basis for applying Bill of
Rights to the states
Selective incorporation: Process of applying
provisions of Bill of Rights to states
 What Are Civil Liberties?
7

Beginning in 1897, the Supreme Court slowly began

to use the protection of life, liberty, or property in
the Fourteenth Amendments due process clause to
incorporate some of the provisions of the Bill of
Rights as binding on the states.
Rights that have been incorporated include:
Right to keep and bear arms
Freedom of speech
Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure
Protection from double jeopardy
 What Are Civil Liberties?
8

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 What Are Civil Liberties?
9

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Constitutional Amendments That
10
Pertain to Civil Liberties

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
11

From Revolution to Civil War

The Sedition Act: Illegal to speak against U S
Government
The World Wars
The Espionage Act: Illegal to obstruct military
recruiting

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
12

The Cold War and Vietnam

U.S. worried about communism
The crackdown on socialists, Communists, and
other radicals was called the red scare
During the McCarthy Era, Congress banned the
Communist Party and membership therein, and
held hearings investigating individual citizens
political views and personal associations.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
13

The Cold War and Vietnam

In the mid-1960s, COINTELPRO, the
counterintelligence program of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI), infiltrated and
disrupted groups that expressed opposition to
mainline American policies, including antiwar
groups, civil rights groups, left-wing groups, and
white supremacy groups.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
14

The War on Terror

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,
Congress passed the Act, which overturned many
of the COINTELPRO reforms, by allowing greater
sharing of intelligence information and enhancing
law enforcements ability to tap telephone and e-
mail communications.
Civil Liberties and American Values

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
15

The War on Terror

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act created
secret courts designed to over see the domestic
activities of the National Security Agency.
In 2013, Edward Snowden revealed classified
documents detailing the NSA keeping records of
every phone call made in the United States.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
16

Too much freedom can lead to anarchy,

a state in which everyone does as he or she

chooses without regard to others.

Too much order can lead to tyranny, a state in
which the people are not free to make
decisions about the private aspects of their
lives.
Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
 Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis
17

During times of war, the

government's increased concern for
order and citizens' increased
concerns about security generally
find civil liberties being limited

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
Freedom of Expression
18

Freedom of Speech
Advocacy of Unlawful Activities
Clear and present danger test: state must prove there
is a high likelihood that the speech in question would
lead to a danger that Congress has a right to prevent.
In a World War I speech case, Justice Oliver Wendell
Holmes wrote that speech was not absolute, such as
a person does not have the right to falsely shout fire in
a crowded theater.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
Freedom of Expression
19

Freedom of Speech
Fighting Words: phrases that might lead the
individual to whom they are directed to respond
with a punch
Hate Speech
Cross burning by the KKK
Picketing at funerals of U.S. soldiers

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
Freedom of Expression
20

Freedom of Speech
College speech codes
The courts have consistently ruled that speech codes
violate the First Amendment.
Time, Place, and Manner Regulations
Symbolic Speech
In the 1960s, the Supreme Court ruled that certain types
of nonverbal activities, such as flag burning or students
wearing black armbands to school, were protected under
the First Amendment as symbolic speech

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
Freedom of Expression
21

In 2002, high
school student
Joseph Frederick
unfurled this banner
while his class
watched the
Olympic Torch relay
pass through
Juneau, Alaska.
When the principal
suspended
Frederick for the
banners message
about drugs,
Frederick sued,
saying that his free
speech rights had
been violated.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
22
Freedom of Expression
Libel: The publishing of false and damaging
statements about another person is not protected
by the First Amendment
Slander: Voicing of false and damaging
statements about another person is not protected
by the First Amendment

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The First Amendment and
23
Freedom of Expression
Freedom of the Press
Prior Restraint: an extraordinary burden of proof
of imminent harm is needed before the courts will
shut down a newspaper before a story is printed.
Subsequent Punishment
Miller test: a three-pronged test developed by the
Supreme Court to determine whether material
can be deemed obscene.
The Right of Association

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Religious Freedom
24

Free Exercise: First Amendment clause

protecting the free exercise of religion.
originally protected individuals only against the
national government, and, at the time, only two
states, Virginia and Rhode Island, had unqualified
religious freedom.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Religious Freedom
25

The Establishment of Religion

Congress cannot recognize one official church
Establishment clause
Lemon test: Test for determining whether aid to
religion violates the establ ishment clause.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Religious Freedom
26

Generally, states need only have a valid

secular purpose to pass laws that also
happen to restrict religious practices.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Religious Freedom
27

In 2014, the Court decided

that the Hobby Lobby
Corporation, which is owned
by a devout Christian, had to
abide by the requirement in
the Affordable Care Act that its
employee health care plan
provide free access to birth
control pills when the
corporate owner believes that
such pills can result, not just in
the prevention of, but in the
termination of pregnancy.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
28

The Second Amendment

Opponents of gun rights believe that the well-
regulated militia clause limits the right to own a
gun.
National Firearms Act 1934
Attempt to regulate gun ownership
The Supreme Court decided in 2008 that there is
an individual right to possess a gun

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The Right to Keep and Bear Arms
29

The Second Amendment

Following Sandy Hook School tragedy in 2012
39 bills to tighten access to guns
70 bills easing access to guns
But no new significant restrictions were enacted
by Congress

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Criminal Procedure
30

Amendments 4, 5, 6, & 7
Investigations
Searches and Seizures
Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and
seizures.
The area over which individuals have Fourth Amendment
protections are those in which there is an expectation of
privacy.
Exclusionary Rule: evidence found in violation of the Fourth
Amendment cannot be used at trial.
In 2014, the Supreme Court found that the content of a cell
phone is exempt from police search.
 Criminal Procedure
31

Amendments 4, 5, 6, & 7
Interrogations
Fifth Amendment
In Miranda v. Arizona, the Court declared that the right
against self-incrimination enshrined in the Fifth
Amendment applied to the states.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Criminal Procedure
32

Trial Procedures
Right to counsel (6th): In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Court
ruled that all criminals were afforded the right to
counsel.
Right to impartial jury (7th)
Verdict, Punishment, and Appeal
Double Jeopardy (5th): ensures that the accused cannot
be tried for the same crime again
Sentencing: 8th Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual
punishment
Appeals
 The Right to Privacy
33

Birth Control and Abortion

The Constitutional right inferred by the Court that has
been used to protect unlisted rights such as sexual
privacy is the right to privacy
Right to privacy established in Griswold v. Connecticut: SC
voided what one justice called an uncommonly silly law that
made it a crime for any personincluding married couples
to use birth control.
1973 Roe v. Wade
Based on right to privacy
Established national right to abortion
Modifications made in 1992
 The Right to Privacy
34

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 The Right to Privacy
35

Homosexual Behavior
Lawrence v. Texas: SC court ruled that laws
prohibiting sodomy were unconstitutional
The Right to Die
Does not include assisted suicide
Student Housing

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Civil Liberties and Democracy
36

Congress and president have ways to hold

Supreme Court accountable
Unlimited liberties can harm social order
Political tolerance essential to democratic
stability

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Percentage Allowing Speeches by
Members of Disfavored Groups 1982-2012
37

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

 Muslims Surveillance Lawsuit
38

Click picture to view video

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
 Video Discussion Questions
39

1. Why did many Muslims find this

surveillance offensive? Is it legal?
2. Does American political culture support
close scrutiny of religious groups?
3. Do security concerns justify New Yorks
actions in this case? Why or why not?

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.