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(Redirected from Civil liberties in the United States)

'Civil liberties of the United States' are civil liberties (sometimes referred to as "civil privileges") guaranteed to citizens of the United States under the Constitution of the United States, as interpreted and clarified by its Supreme Court.

Contents

Freedom of speech

Types of Speech

Core Political Speech

Commercial Speech

Types of Restraints on Speech

Time, place, or manner restrictions

Content-based restrictions

Viewpoint-based restrictions

Special exceptions

Prior restraint

Sexual freedom

Equal protection

See also

Freedom of speech

''Main article:'' Freedom of speech in the United States
Freedom of speech, protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, allows people the freedom to express themselves and enjoy the expressions of others without the interference of the government. Freedom of speech also promotes political discourse necessary for a healthy and engaged electorate.
A definition of civil liberties can be stated as, individual legal and constitutional protections against the government.
Students are guaranteed certain rights of expression in public schools even when the government asserts its interest in keeping the peace. (''Tinker v. Des Moines''). Manner of dress is a form of expression (ibid.).
Freedom of speech in the US follows a graduated system, with different types of regulations subject to different levels of scrutiny in court challenges.

Types of Speech

Core Political Speech

This is the most highly guarded form of speech because of its purely expressive nature and importance to the electorate. Most simply, core political speech is interactive communications about political ideas or issues that are not motivated by profit. Restrictions placed upon core political speech must have the greatest justification or it will be struck down.

Commercial Speech

Not wholly outside the protection of the First Amendment is speech motivated by profit. Such speech still has expressive value although it is being uttered in a marketplace ordinarily regulated by the state. Restrictions of commercial speech are subject to a four-element intermediate scrutiny. (''Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp v. Public Service Commission of New York'')

Types of Restraints on Speech

Time, place, or manner restrictions

These get the lowest level of scrutiny and are usually upheld, unless their requirements have an especially burdensome impact on speech. Note that any regulations that would force speakers to change how or what they say do not fall into this category (so the government cannot restrict one medium even if it leaves open another).
Must be:
1) Content Neutral
2) a significant governmental interest
3) Narrowly Tailored
4) Leave open ample alternative channels of communication

Content-based restrictions

Restrictions that require examining the content of speech to be applied must pass strict scrutiny.

Viewpoint-based restrictions

Restrictions that apply to certain viewpoints but not others face the highest level of scrutiny, and are almost always overturned, unless they fall into one of the courts special exceptions.

Special exceptions

'Obscenity', defined by the Miller test by applying contemporary community standards, is one exception. It is speech to which all of the following apply: appeals to the prurient interest, depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. (This is usually applied to more hard-core forms of pornography.)
'Fighting Words' are words or phrases that are likely to induce the listener to get in a fight. This previously applied to words like nigger, but with people getting less sensitive to words, this exception is little-used.
Speech that presents a 'clear and present danger' may also be restricted. The canonical example, enunciated by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, is falsely yelling "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. The trend since Holmes's time has been to restrict the clear and present danger exception to apply to speech which is completely apolitical in content.
Restrictions on 'commercial speech', defined as speech mainly in furtherance of selling a product, is subject to a lower level of scrutiny than other speech, although recently the court has taken steps to bring it closer to parity with other speech. This is why the government can ban advertisements for cigarettes and false information on corporate prospectuses (which try to sell stock in a company).

Prior restraint

If the government tries to restrain speech before it is spoken, as opposed to punishing it afterwards, it must: clearly define what's illegal, cover the minimum speech necessary, make a quick decision, be backed up by a court, bear the burden of suing and proving the speech is illegal, and show that allowing the speech would "surely result in direct, immediate and irreparable damage to our Nation and its people" (''New York Times Co. v. United States''). US courts have not permitted prior restraints since the case of Near v. Minnesota in 1931.

Sexual freedom

Sexual freedoms include the freedom to have an abortion (''Roe v. Wade'') and the freedom to have private consensual homosexual sex (''Lawrence v. Texas'').

Equal protection

''Main article:'' Equal Protection Clause
Equal protection prevents the government from creating laws that are discriminatory in application or effect.

See also

★ Constitution of the United States