Civil Liberties Vs Civil Rights

Civil liberties are our natural rights, such as freedom, equality and pursuit of happiness, which the government cannot modify by making new laws or by judicial interpretation. Civil liberties are important because it helps restrain the power of the government to dictate how we behave. This ensures that our daily life is not interrupted by authoritative figures that may just try to intentionally cause harm. Civil liberties contribute to the protection of our personal choices, such as the right to abortions. The bill of rights is important to civil liberties because it does not allow the government to govern our personal lives. Unfortunately, with this war against terrorism, we have given those authoritative figures the ability to mandate new laws that invade our personal privacy in the name of terrorism, such as the Patriot Act.

In 1963, an eighteen year old girl was kidnapped and raped in Phoenix; AZ. Police officials felt that they had found their suspect in a man named Ernesto Miranda, who also happened to be a mentally challenged, poor, Hispanic male. He was taken into custody, where the victim identified him as her attacker. After, the police officials took him into an interrogation room where he was held for hours. He eventually signed a statement admitting his guilt. Miranda was then sentenced. He later appealed his case on the grounds of the violation of the 5th amendment. In the case of Miranda v. Arizona (1966), his 5th amendment right was violated because he was not warned that what he said would be held against him in court. In his appeal, his statement was inadmissible but that still wasn’t enough to convince the jury that he was innocent. Because of this violation of the 5th amendment, the Miranda rights were established. The Miranda rights allowed individuals, guilty or innocent, to understand their fifth amendment before signing or saying anything incriminating against themselves.

In 1973, the topic of abortion and the 9th amendment surfaced. Where some argued that abortion was murder, others argued that no one had the right to govern a woman’s right to choose. Norma McCorvey, who was unable to care for her ready born child felt that abortion was the only solution for her unborn child. But with Texas law only allowing abortions as a means of saving the life of a mother, she was denied the right to an abortion. That’s when Texas lawyers, who were trying desperately to bring a “lawsuit of change”, felt that McCorvey’s case was the one they needed. Unfortunately for Norma, Roe v. Wade was