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The Freedom Of Civil Liberties

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The Freedom of Civil Liberties One might ask the importance of civil liberties after so many years. The answer is that we are all touched by these liberties every day. Even though civil liberties were embedded into the Bill of Rights in the late 1800’s, we today, as Americans, still have the right to be protected against any abusive power used by the government (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 106). Although Americans are protected fully today, it took over a century for all civil liberties to be implemented. With several civil liberties in place, which is most important? Which liberty protects us as Americans, most significantly? I believe all of our civil liberties are equally as beneficial and lead to the safety of every citizen in the United …show more content…

To understand civil liberties, one must first understand why the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. Civil liberties include balancing interests. There has to be a balance between a citizen’s freedom, the government interests, and public safety (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 107). Along with balancing interests came drawing lines and defining the limits of acceptable conduct by the government or an individual citizen in the context of a specific civil liberty (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 108). Although the courts outline the limitations of our civil liberties, often times, other branches of government and the public get involved. There were early concerns of the public as to how our civil liberties would be defined (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p.109). As stated in American Politics Today, there were only limited protections outlined in the original Constitution, such as protection against illegal incarceration (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 109). States were adamant about individuals requiring protection from the federal government. The fight for the Bill of Rights was not necessarily an easy one. Because the Bill of Rights only applied to the national government, another amendment was submitted that also required states to also uphold civil liberties (Bianco & Canon, 2015, p. 109). This was denied by congress as the Bill of Rights was to make the national government stronger. Unfortunately, the Bill of Rights had a minor

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