Unit 4: Individual Rights and Liberties

“The world has never had a good definition of liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in need of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing"--Abraham Lincoln, speaking at the Baltimore Sanitary Fair, April 18, 1864

The five essential freedoms of the First Amendment are displayed on the exterior wall of the Newseum in Washington D.C. Perhaps the most significant pronouncement of individual rights in history, the impact of the First Amendment has colored the history of the United States and has influenced and shaped the political philosophies of countless millions of people across the globe.

Rights. What are they? Moreover, what is a right? More than the opposite direction of left or the action taken when a person picks up or “rights” a knocked-over floor lamp, a right is a moral, ethical, or legal principle considered as the basic cause of truth, justice, morality, or ethics. Within the English political tradition--especially that of the United States of America--individual people are believed to hold certain rights that cannot be taken away without due process of the law. However, where do one person’s rights begin and end? How far can an individual act in accordance to his or her own wishes before the law is broken? Who determines what is permissible and how is this determined? In this unit of study you will examine the rights guaranteed to the individual by the United States Constitution. You will also encounter the meaning and expression of liberty--the freedoms you enjoy within the framework of the laws--and evaluate how the many exercises and expressions of liberty have been interpreted by the courts throughout American history. Though the rights and liberties were written down in what was considered to be the plain language of the late 18th century, they have been constantly reviewed, reinterpreted, and redefined by subsequent generations of Americans according to the context of the circumstances in which they lived. This process of constitutional review, reinterpretation, and redefinition continues to this day and fuels the same controversy today as it did over two centuries ago.