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The Bill of Rights (1791)
The Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution in response
to the Anti-Federalists’ concern that the U.S. Constitution did not
enumerate individual rights and protections (see Benchmark 1.8).
The Bill of Rights protects the rights of political expression (1st
Amendment) and the rights of those accused of crimes (4th, 5th,
6th, 8th amendments).
The Bill of Rights includes other rights that deal with matters
other than expression or criminal procedure.
Due Process Rights and Protections
Included in the Bill of Rights Due Process
Right/Protection
Description
Cruel and unusual
punishment
The death penalty, while constitutional, may not be used
in a racially discriminatory manner, or in a way that
causes severe pain.
Double jeopardy A person may not be tried twice for the same crime.
Pleading the fifth A person is not required to provide information while
being questioned or while testifying if that information
will self-incriminate.
Right to counsel A person is entitled to legal counsel for representation in
criminal cases even if that person cannot afford an
attorney (see Benchmark 3.12).
Search and seizure A person is protected from unreasonable search and
seizure; probable cause must be established in order to
search a person or their property.
Trial by jury Criminal defendants are guaranteed a trial by jury of the
defendant’s peers (see Benchmark 2.2) both as to
findings of fact and as to the guilt of the defendant.
Other Rights Contained in the
Constitution Right Description
Eminent domain The right of the government to take property for public
use.
Equal protection under
the law
State statutes may not deny U.S. citizens their rights
under the Bill of Rights or other amendments to the
Constitution.
Right to bear arms The right of the people to have their own arms, including
guns, for their defense (see Benchmark 3.12).
Suffrage The right to vote (see Benchmark 3.7).
Unenumerated rights
(Ninth Amendment)
Rights not listed in the Bill of Rights are not forbidden
just because they are not listed.
Protecting and Limiting Individual
Rights The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution includes five freedoms or rights
including: religious exercise, speech, press, peaceable assembly and
petitioning the government for redress of grievances.
These freedoms are not absolute because doing so might threaten the public
interest.
Federal and state laws, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions, have all placed
limitations on First Amendment freedoms in order to protect the public
interest.
Properly balancing individual freedoms with the public interest promotes a
stable society.
Freedom is an ideal of representative democracy, as is stability.
Balancing Individual Rights with the
Public Interest
Method Meaning Constitutional Protection
Ex post facto A law that makes
an act a crime
after that act has
been committed.
Article I, Section 9:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law
shall be passed.
Habeas
corpus
The government
may not hold a
citizen
indefinitely
without showing
cause
Article I, Section 9:
The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas
Corpus shall not be suspended, unless
when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the
public Safety may require it.
The Relationship between the People and
Government in the U.S. Constitution
The relationship between the people and the government in the U.S. is based on the
notion that both individual rights and the public interest should be protected by
government.
Individual rights are central to democratic political and social life and represent the
“life, liberty and happiness” identified by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of
Independence and “life, liberty or estate” addressed by John Locke in the Two Treatises
of Government (1690) (see Benchmark 1.1 and Benchmark 1.4).
Protecting the public interest is also critical because community stability is threatened
when the public believes that its interests as a community are threatened due to
government action or inaction. The public interest is also understood as the general
welfare or common well-being.
Individual Rights and the U.S.
ConstitutionIndividual rights are best understood as those rights found in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights
was offered by the Federalists as a compromise to the Anti-Federalists who believed that the
constitution proposed in 1787 would deny rights that the people enjoyed under the Articles of
Confederation (see Benchmark 1.8).
The Bill of Rights protects social (First Amendment freedoms of association, peaceable assembly,
speech, press), political (First Amendment freedom to petition the government for redress of
grievances) and economic (Fifth Amendment protections that life, liberty or property may not be
taken without due process of law and that private property may not be taken for public use without
just compensation) rights (see Benchmark 2.4).
Other amendments to the U.S. Constitution further protect political rights such as the right to vote
protected by the Fifteenth (no race discrimination in voting), Nineteenth (no sex discrimination in
voting), Twenty-fourth (no poll taxes) and Twenty-sixth amendments (lowers voting age to 18)
(see Benchmark 3.7). The Fourteenth Amendment protects property rights in that, like the Fifth
Amendment, life, liberty or property may not be taken without due process of law by the states
(the Fifth Amendment applies to the federal government only).
When Individual Rights and the Public
Interest Conflict: Civil Disobedience
“Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court's decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the
public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may want to
ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer lies in the fact that there are
two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal
but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I
would agree with St. Augustine that ‘an unjust law is no law at all’”. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from a
Birmingham Jail, 1963.
When Individual Rights and Public
Interest Conflict: Economic FreedomEconomic freedom is guarded as an individual right because it is a way to experience the freedom
that is protected by the U.S. Constitution (see Benchmark 2.4) and addressed in the Declaration of
Independence (see Benchmark 1.4).
A commitment to economic freedom has been cited by lawmakers and interest groups seeking to
reduce trade barriers (see Benchmark 3.3), enact policies broadening the role of money in political
campaigns (see Benchmark 2.10), weaken labor unions, increase or reduce taxes (see Benchmark
3.3), and limit increases in the minimum wage.
In each of these areas, economic freedoms have been limited for the sake of the public interest.
For example, contributions to political campaigns are limited in some contexts (direct
contributions to candidates) but not others (money spent by interest groups on behalf of
candidates)(see Benchmark 2.10). Many ways of earning money are outlawed; for example,
President Obama has stated that the U.S. embargo on Cuba (see Benchmark 4.1 and Benchmark
3.1) is “in the national interests of the United States” which limits persons from buying and selling
Cuban products.
When Individual Rights and Public
Interest Conflict: Forced Internment“But hardships are part of war, and war is an
aggregation of hardships. All citizens alike,
both in and out of uniform, feel the impact of
war in greater or lesser measure. Citizenship
has its responsibilities, as well as its privileges,
and, in time of war, the burden is always
heavier. Compulsory exclusion of large groups
of citizens from their homes, except under
circumstances of direst emergency and peril, is
inconsistent with our basic governmental
institutions. But when, under conditions of
modern warfare, our shores are threatened by
hostile forces, the power to protect must be
commensurate with the threatened danger.”
Korematsu v. U.S. (1944) Case Opinion,
authored by Associate Justice Hugo Black
When Individual Rights and Public
Interest Conflict: Property RightsThe right to own property is addressed in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment also guarantees that, should the government take money for purposes of
“eminent domain” (taking property for public use), one is entitled to “just compensation”.
Due process must be implemented if the government decides to take a person’s property through
“eminent domain”.
Over the last few decades, the U.S. Supreme Court, and lower courts, has been asked to rule on
situations when local governments denied property rights in ways that many believe was
unconstitutional.
19th Century Voting Rights Expansions
Event Event Details
13th
Amendment
(1865)
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
14th
Amendment
(1868)
Section 1. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they
reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges
or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any
person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Section 2 (excerpt). “But when the right to vote at any election…is denied to any
of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens
of the United States, or in any way abridged, … the basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall
bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.”
15th
Amendment
(1870)
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.”
20th Century Voting Rights Expansions
Event Event Details
19th Amendment
(1920)
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or by any State on account of sex.”
24th Amendment
(1964)
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for
President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or
Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any
State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.”
Civil Rights Act
of 1964
Contained several minority voting-related provisions including ending unequal application
of voter registration requirements. Title VIII also required that voter registration and voting
data be compiled in those areas specified by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Voting Rights
Act of 1965
Outlawed discriminatory voting practices directed against African-Americans such as
literacy and good citizenship tests. These tests had the effect of denying registration to most
African-American voters, especially in southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi.
26th Amendment
(1971)
“The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”
Sample Item 25 SS.7.C.3.6 Content Focus Free Speech
What has been one long-term result of the constitutional protection of free
speech?
A. fewer court cases involving minors
B. fewer laws limiting minority rights
C. a more accurate election
D. a more informed society*
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