Civil Rights and Liberties

Monday's class will deal with the topic of civil rights and liberties -- an appropriate way to start off the week of July 4, which commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence back in 1776. As we'll discuss tomorrow, this founding document casts civil rights and liberties as the raison d'etre of government; as far as its author and signatories were concerned, government exists at the pleasure of the people for the purpose of securing their rights and liberties, and it is the people's right to reform or replace any government that doesn't fulfill that objective.

We'll take this line of thought as our starting point for discussing how and the extent to which civil rights and liberties have come to be enshrined in the American political system; in the meantime, here are some questions to mull over: How practical is the Declaration of Independence's vision of government? How well does the American political system put its ideals into practice? Have times changed enough since the late 18th century to suggest the need for a fundamental rethinking of the government's responsibility for protecting its citizens' rights and liberties? Franklin Roosevelt proposed an "economic Bill of Rights" when he was president during the 1930s-1940s -- should his proposals be given consideration as potential constitutional amendments today?