The Bill of Rights (1791): Review

• First Amendment: Freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly
• Second Amendment: Right to bear arms
• Fourth Amendment: Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures
• Fifth Amendment: Due Process and property protections
• Sixth Amendment: Trial requirements
• Eighth Amendment: Bail, Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Alien and Sedition Acts (1798)

• Enacted in 1798
• Controversial legislation during a time of political tension
• Four laws signed into law by President John Adams
• Limited freedom of speech and press
• Controversial restrictions on immigrants

Alien Acts

• Authorized the deportation of non-citizens deemed “dangerous” to the U.S.
• Raised residency requirements for citizenship from 5 to 14 years
• Targeted immigrants, especially French and Irish, due to fears of foreign influence

Sedition Act

• Made it a crime to publish false, scandalous, or malicious writings against the U.S. government
• Critics argued it violated the First Amendment’s free speech protections
• Used to target Republican critics of the Federalist administration

Impact of Alien and Sedition Acts

• Opposition and criticism from Thomas Jefferson’s party, the Republicans
• Several prosecutions of newspaper editors
• Acts expired in 1801, seen as a threat to civil liberties
• Sedition Act repealed in 1802

Marbury v. Madison (1803)

• Landmark Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review
• Supreme Court explicitly claimed the power to declare laws unconstitutional
• Not directly a civil liberties case but…
• Strengthened the role of the judiciary in protecting civil liberties

Freedom of the Press

• Periodicals and newspapers played a vital role in shaping public opinion
• Press often served as a check on government power and promoted civil liberties
• Periods of intense political polarization and partisan press

Fugitive Slave Act and Dred Scott Case

• Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

            - Required the return of escaped slaves to their owners
            - Controversial law that led to challenges to personal liberty in the North
            - Sparked resistance and support for the Underground Railroad

• Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)

            - Supreme Court decision that denied enslaved individuals citizenship rights
            - Ruled that Congress couldn't prohibit slavery in the territories
            - Raised questions about the rights of African Americans

Civil Liberties During the Civil War

• Habeas Corpus Suspension

            - President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus in 1861
            - Habeas corpus is the legal right to challenge one's imprisonment
            - Suspension allowed for the arrest and detention of individuals without trial

• Rationale for Suspension

            - Lincoln argued it was necessary to maintain order and suppress dissent
            - Civil War created a volatile environment with the threat of rebellion
            - Controversial decision that faced legal and political challenges

• Impact on Civil Liberties

            - Many individuals, including journalists and political activists, were arrested
            - Critics saw it as an infringement on civil liberties and an abuse of power
            - Supreme Court later ruled the suspension unconstitutional in Ex parte Milligan (1866)

Incorporation of the Bill of Rights (14th Amendment)

• 14th Amendment (1868) extended federal Bill of Rights to state governments
• Key for protecting civil liberties at the state level

Free Speech Issues

• Historical and contemporary challenges to free speech
• Landmark cases: Schenck v. United States (1919), Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)
• Balancing free speech with national security concerns

Tinker v. Des Moines (1969)

• Student protest case
• Landmark decision protecting students’ free speech rights
• “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

Cohen v. California (1971)

• Profanity case
• Landmark decision protecting expressive speech
• “One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”

Free Press Issues

• Press freedom and government censorship
• Pentagon Papers case (1971)
• Challenges in the digital age: WikiLeaks and online journalism

New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)

• Landmark libel case
• Significance for press freedom and the First Amendment
• Established “actual malice” standard for public figures

Search and Seizure Issues

• Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures
• Landmark cases: Mapp v. Ohio (1961), Terry v. Ohio (1968)
• Modern concerns: Surveillance, privacy, and technology

Mapp v. Ohio (1961)

• Fourth Amendment case
• Exclusionary rule: Illegally obtained evidence cannot be used federal court cases
• Mapp expanded the exclusionary rule to states
• Significant protection of the right against unreasonable searches and seizures

Terry v. Ohio (1968)

• Fourth Amendment case

• “Stop and frisk” encounters

• Balancing law enforcement needs and individual rights

• Police may stop and frisk if:

            - reasonable belief person was involved in a crime
            - reasonable belief the person is armed

Rights of Accused Criminals

• Fifth Amendment: Protection against self-incrimination
• Sixth Amendment: Right to a fair trial, legal counsel, and confrontation of witnesses
• Landmark cases: Miranda v. Arizona (1966), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

• Applied the Sixth Amendment to the states
• Right to legal counsel for criminal defendants
• States must provide attorneys if necessary
• Ensuring fair trials and equal access to justice

Miranda v. Arizona (1966)

• Fifth Amendment case
• The right to remain silent and the right to an attorney
• Rights are not meaningful unless the accused is informed of them
• Custodial interrogations and self-incrimination

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

• Eighth Amendment: Protection against cruel and unusual punishment
• Landmark cases: Furman v. Georgia (1972), Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
• Debate over the death penalty and evolving standards of decency

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

• Capital punishment
• Eighth Amendment case
• Temporary suspension of the death penalty in the United States
• Concerns about arbitrary and discriminatory application

Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

• Eighth Amendment case
• Reinstating the death penalty with specific guidelines
• Addressing concerns raised in Furman v. Georgia

Civil Rights vs Civil Liberties

What is the difference?

Civil Rights vs Civil Liberties

What is the difference?

• Civil liberties protect individuals from tyranny

They protect individuals from abuse of the massive power of government to commit organized violence

Civil Rights vs Civil Liberties

What is the difference?

• Civil liberties protect individuals from tyranny
• Civil rights protect individuals from discrimination

How are they related?

Civil Rights vs Civil Liberties

What is the difference?

• Civil liberties protect individuals from tyranny
• Civil rights protect individuals from discrimination

How are they related?

Answer: Early civil rights were heavily focused on expanding basic liberties to those that had not been enjoying them.

Abolition Movement (19th Century)

• Abolitionists’ efforts to end slavery
• Leading figures: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman
• The Underground Railroad and the Emancipation Proclamation

Frederick Douglass

• Prominent African American abolitionist
• Escaped slavery and became a powerful orator
• Advocate for equal rights and suffrage
• Espoused a classical liberal philosophy

Harriet Tubman

• Famed “conductor” on the Underground Railroad
• Escaped slavery and led others to freedom
• Civil War nurse, suffragist, and advocate for civil rights

The Underground Railroad

• Network of secret routes and safe houses
• Helped enslaved individuals escape to freedom
• A symbol of resistance against slavery

13th Amendment (1865)

• Abolished slavery in the United States
• A pivotal moment in the fight for freedom

14th Amendment (1868)

• Defined citizenship and equal protection under the law
• Fundamental for civil rights and legal equality
• Due process clause used to apply Bill of Rights to the states

15th Amendment (1870)

• Prohibited racial discrimination in voting
• A step toward voting rights for African Americans

Civil Rights Act of 1866

• Passed by Congress on April 9, 1866
• One of the first federal civil rights laws
• Intended to protect the rights of African Americans
• Quickly disregarded

Reconstruction Era (1865-1877)

• Post-Civil War period
• Amendments 13, 14, and 15: Abolishing slavery, citizenship rights, and voting rights
• Challenges and opposition in the South

Women’s Suffrage Movement

• Big overlap with Abolitionist movement
• The fight for women’s right to vote
• Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
• 19th Amendment (1920): Women’s suffrage victory

Seneca Falls Convention (1848)

• First women’s rights convention in the United States
• Declaration of Sentiments: Demands for women’s equality
• A pivotal moment in the suffrage movement

Jim Crow Era (Late 19th Century - Mid-20th Century)

• Racial segregation and discrimination in the South
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and “separate but equal”
• Legalized segregation and disenfranchisement

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Supreme Court case upholding segregation
• “Separate but equal” doctrine
• Deepened racial divisions and discrimination

Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s)

• Struggles for racial equality and civil rights
• Key figures: Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks
• Key Supreme Court case: Brown v. Board of Education
• Landmark legislation: Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965

Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

• Landmark case ending racial segregation in Topeka, Kansas schools
• Not a Southern state: discrimination was a nationwide illness
• “Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

• Civil rights leader and advocate for nonviolent protest
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington
• Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Rosa Parks

• Montgomery Bus Boycott catalyst
• Iconic figure in the fight against racial segregation
• “The mother of the civil rights movement”

Civil Rights Act of 1964

• Outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
• A transformative piece of legislation

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Protected voting rights for minorities
• Ended discriminatory voting practices
• Expanded access to the ballot box

Later Women’s Issues

• Second-wave feminism (1960s-1980s)
• Roe v. Wade (1973): Right to abortion
• Ongoing debates on gender equality

Griswold v. Connecticut (1965)

• Landmark case establishing a right to privacy
• Actually applied to “marital right to privacy”
• Important in history of women’s rights, but a civil liberty for all people
• Birth control access

Roe v. Wade (1973)

• Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion

• Women’s reproductive rights and bodily autonomy

• Limited state regulation by trimester

            - First trimester: No regulation allowed
            - Second trimeester: Regulation to protect health of the woman
            - Third trimester: Regulation to protect the fetus

• Later cases, especially Casey allowed regulation earlier in pregnancy

Dobbs Case (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization)

Supreme Court case in 2022

• What it did not do:

            - Make abortion illegal nationwide
            - Eliminate other Constitutional rights including the right to travel across state lines
            - Overturn earlier decisions involving contraception

• What it did:

            - Overturned Roe v. Wade 
            - Allowed states to regulate abortion at any point in pregnrancy for either reason

What else Dobbs did

• Create reason for involvement in state elections

• Demonstrated a flaw in “judge made law” - Law which judges can make, they can unmake

• Drew attention to the shaky legal ground of the right to privacy

            - Right to abortion was based on right to privacy
            - Neither can be found anywhere in the Constitution
            - Both were "judge made law"
            - Suggests the need to amend the Constitution to include a written Constitutional right to privacy
            - This is important to both genders
            - The right contraception is included in this

Equal Rights Amendment

• Proposed amendment to guarantee equal rights regardless of gender
• Expired without ratification
• Expiration may not be valid
• Ongoing debate and ratification efforts

Americans with Disabilities Act (1990)

• Comprehensive disability rights legislation
• Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush
• Promoted accessibility and equal opportunities

Authorship and License

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.</>