Civil Liberties and Rights

Since the beginning of American history, citizens who resided the country lacked the basic civil rights and liberties that humans deserved. Different races and ethnicities were treated unfairly. Voting rights were denied to anyone who was not a rich, white male. Women were harassed by their bosses and expected to take care of everything household related. Life was not all that pretty throughout America’s past, but thankfully overtime American citizens’ civil liberties and rights expanded – granting Americans true freedom.
Throughout American history, our civil liberties as American citizens have evolved immensely. For example, the first ten amendments in the U.S. Constitution are referred to as the “The Bill of Rights,” which contains some of the most cherished civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and religion. These civil liberties however, did not originally apply to state governments or institutions the state established. The Bill of Rights focused solely on what the national government could not do, allowing state governments to do whatever they wanted. For example, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire supported Congregationalist ministers with tax payer dollars for decades. After the Civil War, civil liberties expanded, because three new amendments were added: the Thirteenth, abolishing slavery, the Fourteenth, which redefined civil liberties and rights, and the Fifteenth, which allowed adult, male citizens to vote. The due process clause (contained in the Fourteenth Amendment) became one of the most important civil liberties, because it applied the language of the Fifth Amendment to state governments, proclaiming that they could not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law....

... middle of paper ...

...minal history, race, sexuality or place of residency. It is all up to the judges now to decide whether the government provides valid reasons to categorize certain laws.
Although America has come really far when it comes to the civil liberties and rights of its citizens, there is still a lot of room for improvement. We have yet to achieve the goals expressed by the Constitution because there continues to be several cases brought to court of people’s rights being taken from them and many more where people are being discriminated against. Once a person is settled into a certain lifestyle it is difficult to change their mindsets. True civil rights and liberties will only come once America and the citizens that reside within change the way that they see the world, and realize that everyone was created equal with certain undeniable rights – the way it was intended to be.