AP US Government and Politics: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights Notes

Key Takeaways: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

1. The Constitution protects the rights and privileges of people in the United States. Some rights, such as voting, require citizenship; others, such as the right to counsel, apply to any person in U.S. jurisdiction. Rights are not absolute and may be limited for a legitimate governmental reason.
2. Civil liberties and civil rights are two distinct categories. A civil liberty is typically freedom to do something, usually to exercise a right; a civil right is typically freedom from some-thing, such as discrimination. The boundaries of civil rights and civil liberties have shifted over the history of the United States as courts have applied the laws in different ways at different times.
3. The Bill of Rights is the formal name for the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. Most of the rights within the Bill of Rights have been applied to the states through incorporation via the Fourteenth Amendment.
4. Due process is the legal concept that prohibits random or arbitrary governmental action; it is one of the rationales for applying the Bill of Rights to the states, along with the equal protection clause.
5. Social movements need clear goals and frameworks to successfully advance their causes. Notable movements include the civil rights movement, the women’s rights movement, and the LGBTQ rights movement.
6. Successful movements engage in community building within their core constituency and work in coalition with allied groups to effect desired changes. Movements must also navigate challenges between compromise and idealism. Social change is a slow process that requires work on legal, cultural, and moral fronts.
7. The Supreme Court has gone back and forth on civil liberties since its founding, producing rulings that expanded liberties from the 1950s through the 1970s and rulings that have slowly narrowed them since then.