history

American Government Discussion Question and classmates response:

DQ must be 2 paragraphs and classmates response must be 1 paragraph. Must be you own work.

DQ1

List five (5) different characteristics of civil liberties and five (5) different characteristics of civil rights.  How are the two different?  Comment on the responses of your classmates regarding their views of the differences.

Classmate’s responses:

1. Civil liberties are personal freedoms that the government may not infringe upon. A few examples of civil liberties are free practice of religion, free speech, freedom of media to express opinions, and secure from unlawful search. Others are the fact that we have the right to vote, the right to marry, or even the right to a fair court trial. Civil liberties concern basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed, either in the Bill of Rights and the constitution, or through the years by lawmakers.

Civil Rights is basically the right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics such as race, gender, disability, religion, age, or national origin.

One way to distinguish the different between civil rights and civil liberties is to consider what is actually being affected. An example would be employers do not have the legal right to a promotion, because it is not a guaranteed civil liberty. But, as a female employee you do have the legal right to be free from discrimination in ebing considered for that promotion. Civil rights are there so that you cannot legally be denied the promotion based on race, gender, or disability.

2. Civil liberites are freedoms guranteed to individuals.  Five characteristics of civil liberities are: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, free to exercise clause, freedom of expression and freedom of press.  Civil rights are powers and priviledges guranteed to individuals.  Five characteristics of civil rights that are also considered civil liberites are that outline in the Bill of Right are right to vote, right to a jury, right to equal employment opportunity, right to bear arms and right to assemble peacefully. Civil rights is basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics race, gender, disability in settings such as employment and housing. The determine the difference you have to decide what right is affected and whose right right is it affecting, such as a right to be promoted but there is not gurantee of promotion.  You can be considered but not choosen, however the reason can be due to race, gender or disability.

3. The two terms, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties are commonly mixed up.  The two are similar, but a little different.  Civil Liberty is easier for me to remember by the term, 'liberty'.  Liberty means freedom, therefore it makes sense that civil liberty is protection from the government that no one can touch.  For example, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Privacy, Right to a fair court trial, Right to vote, and the right to marry.  Everyone has Civil Liberties, it is found in the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

Civil Rights refers to the government taking action and creating equality for people.  Most of the time civil rights is referring to (or should ring a bell) when talking about discrimination of a particular race or minority.  Some civil rights, for example would be the Age Discrimination Act, Fair Housing Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, and Civil Rights Act of 1964 VII (Equal Employment Opportunities).  All of these civil rights are so that people are not discriminated based on sex, race, disability, age, etc.