Civil liberties overview and principles

¶ … Civil Liberties

The Bill of Rights was added to the U.S. Constitution in 1791. These are the first 10 amendments of the constitution, and were specifically created to facilitate the civil liberties of those who are lawfully included in the United States of America. In some ways, the Bill of Rights descends from the Magna Carta (Author 73), as the latter document preceded the former and was also created to ensure the civil liberties of individuals. Therefore, the origins of the Bill of Rights are intrinsically linked to the notion of not letting the government impose on the rights of individuals within the country. Originally, the Bill of Rights functioned as protection for civilians. Although time and different amendments and various court rulings have helped to mutate the meaning and (perhaps) even the efficacy of the Bill of Rights, its origins were to guarantee civil liberties to U.S. Citizens -- specifically as those liberties were not expressly denoted in the Constitution.

The nationalization of the Bill of Rights, as expressly denoted by the court case Barron v. Baltimore, took place on a precedent-setting basis after the Supreme Court ruled on the aforementioned court case in 1833. In this case, the plaintiff (Barron) attempted to sue the state of Baltimore for reducing water levels -- which cause pecuniary damage to the plaintiff. However, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bill of Rights only applied to the federal government (Author 76-77). As such, it was inapplicable to state government's such as Baltimore. Therefore, the nationalization of the Bill of Rights was the fact that these 10 amendments only pertained to the power of the federal government. As such, this court ruling substantially reduced the effectiveness of the Bill of Rights.

Additionally, the nationalization of the Bill of Rights would fully occur with the passing of the 14th amendment. This amendment stated that state legislation could not intrude upon the basic rights of life, liberty and happiness that the Bill of Rights mandated. Thus, individuals were afforded the protection of the Bill of Rights at the state level by the fourteenth amendment. Incorporation theory, then, is the gradual incorporation of the various amendments outlined in the Bill of Rights at the state level. Many of the amendments in the Bill Of Rights have been incorporated at the state level due to incorporation theory.

Personally, I believe that incorporation is an extremely needed aspect of the law. Those who originally designed the Bill of Rights did not do so to only limit federal powers from infringing upon the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. They created these amendments to guarantee those civil liberties that they considered necessary, and which they knew that the government may attempt to temporarily supersede on occasion. The spirit in which the Bill of Rights was created naturally expends to limitations on states from infringing upon these rights, as well.