Civil Liberties…protection from government.

Here are some words fror this week.          

Civil Liberties

          Establishment clause

          Due process clause

          Slander

          Libel

          Exclusionary rule of evidence

            Plea bargaining

Civil Liberties…protection from government.

Government is the bad guy!

Civil Liberties are protection from government. Government is the bad guy and we need protection from it. That was clearly in the minds of the founding fathers. They feared government but they feared chaos more - so they compromised and we have our limited government system with checks and balances

That same thought bounces around the paranoid vacuum of many of the right wing militia groups .

Federalism has Changed.

We have changed as the stages (or eras) of federalism have changed. 

Many people now see government as the caring father or the intruding mother or some such nonsense.  There really is nothing "like" government, so most of those analogies are faulty.

Actually government can do quite a bit of damage to a person. The weight of any government action on citizens can be a threat to life and liberty. 

We don't fear our government as much as the founders because for 200 years we have continued to expect government to limit itself. 

Limited Government . Remember from earlier this semester when I said limited government is more important than democracy.

Liberty or Death!

Liberty is a 200 year old word for what you and I call freedom (or less accurately but more often – “rights”). Our basic political rights, spelled out in our constitution and adhered to (somewhat) through out our history, may be expressed as rights but they are really liberties. They seek to insure protection from unreasonable government action. 

Government is seen as the intruder that needs to be control, limited, and checked.

So Help me God…

The establishment clause does not say: “separation of church and state.” That phrase was written to help people understand the intent of the first amendment. But the amendment says congress can't start a national religion (of course that's a paraphrase). Check out the exact wording yourself (in the back of your book) and see if you agree.

The exclusionary rule.

We have always had a prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. It's in the Constitution, right? But how had that been enforced? 

Until very recently, the conduct of officers and the prosecution had not been so scrutinized. By the time the exclusionary rule decision was made. The practices of police departments and DA's around the country were being questioned and held to higher standards than ever before. It's really this generation which has seen the greatest advances in civil liberties. Because we continue to expect that government limit itself. That is what "Mapp v Ohio" is all about.  

"Cop a plea..."

Plea bargaining is an essential and important part of the justice system.  It allows the courts to continue to process cases - especially when the accused is actually guilty.  Moreover, it allows the guilty to be put in prison when there may not have been enough evidence to convict them.  

Of course, the three strikes rule changes this a little.  And now it may be struck down.

Libel is printed slander .

Slander is spoken and Libel is written (or recorded). It has to be false and harmful.

In my regular classes we break into groups and do an activity looking at a case involving libel and invasion of privacy.  

To see this activity click here.