Search

Despite hundreds of federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court decisions prohibiting discrimination based on sex and race, American women and people of color continue to face pervasive individual and structural discrimination. Women often lack equal pay for equal work, affordable childcare, and paid family medical leave. Following the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, safe, legal abortion has become inaccessible in approximately half the country, disproportionately impacting poor women. Women and people of color are underrepresented in elected offices at the federal and state levels, and the voting rights of people of color continue to be eroded. Employing a public administration framework, Social Equity in a Post-Roe America documents the scope and breadth of inequality in the United States, linking social equity to sex, race, and the rule of law.This insightful and provocative new book examines U.S. Supreme Court decisions and federal statutes across four public policy domains that increasingly influence U.S. democracy and impact the lives of American women. These policy domains consist of political representation, which includes citizenship and voting rights, contraception, abortion, and employment. Social Equity in a Post-Roe America offers policy recommendations to increase equitable access and equal opportunity for women and people of color. It is required reading for all students of public administration, public policy, and political science, as well as for engaged citizens.

The primary source documents on this page highlight pivotal moments in the course of American history or government. They are some of the most-viewed and sought-out documents in the holdings of the National Archives. Contents: Lee Resolution (1776) Declaration of Independence (1776) Articles of Confederation (1777) Treaty of Alliance with France (1778) Treaty of Paris (1783) Virginia Plan (1787) Northwest Ordinance (1787) Constitution of the United States (1787) President George Washington's First Inaugural Speech (1789) Federal Judiciary Act (1789) Bill of Rights (1791) Marbury v. Madison (1803)

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business, and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This insightful Advanced Introduction provides a kaleidoscopic overview of key US civil liberties, including freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religion, limitations on search and seizure, due process in criminal proceedings, autonomy rights, rights of equality, and democratic participation. Key Features: Discusses the historical development and current status of core civil libertiesExamines the tension between libertarian and egalitarian views of civil libertiesPromotes further understanding of the role of the US Supreme Court and other actors in setting levels of protection for civil libertiesProvides an overview of common themes in development and interpretation of constitutionally protected civil liberties in multiple areas, including abortion Featuring examples of how key civil liberties have been shaped by historical, legal, and philosophical forces, this Advanced Introduction will be essential reading for students and scholars in American studies, history, human rights, law and politics, and political science.

This book guides civil rights lawyers-and informs judges, legislators, and academics-in the effective use of international law in U.S. federal and state cases. The author highlights many concrete areas in which international law can enhance human rights protection both in the U.S. and abroad, such as: Death penalty Lethal force by police and military authorities Extraterritorial privacy protection Gay and lesbian rights Government liability for foreseeable harm Compensation for unintentional false imprisonment. This eminently practical approach-based on model briefs developed for and used by leading U.S. civil rights lawyers and organizations-presents an extremely rare treatment of international human rights law. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

This volume examines the success of the 9/11 attacks in undermining the cherished principles of Western democracy, free speech and tolerance, which were central to US values. It is argued that this has led to the USA fighting disastrous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to sanctioning the use of torture and imprisonment without trial in Guantánamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, surveillance and drone attacks. At home, it has resulted in restrictions of civil liberties and the growth of an ill-affordable military and security apparatus. In this collection the authors note the irony that the shocking destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 should become the justification for the relentless expansion of security agencies. Yet, this is a salutary illustration of how the security agencies in the USA have adopted faulty preconceptions, which have become too embedded within the institution to be abandoned without loss of credibility and prestige. The book presents a timely assessment of both the human rights costs of the ‘war on terror'and the methods used to wage and relentlessly continue that war. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners and students in the fields of human rights law, criminal justice, criminology, politics and international studies.

The national security and civil liberties tensions of the World War II mass incarceration link 9/11 and the 2015 Paris-San Bernardino attacks to the Trump era in America - an era darkened by accelerating discrimination against and intimidation of those asserting rights of freedom of religion, association and speech, and an era marked by increasingly volatile protests. This book discusses the broad civil liberties challenges posed by these past-into-the-future linkages highlighting pressing questions about the significance of judicial independence for a constitutional democracy committed both to security and to the rule of law. What will happen when those profiled, detained, harassed, or discriminated against under the mantle of national security turn to the courts for legal protection? How will the U.S. courts respond to the need to protect both society and fundamental democratic values of our political process? Will courts fall passively in line with the elective branches, as they did in Korematsu v. United States, or serve as the guardian of the Bill of Rights, scrutinizing claims of'pressing public necessity'as justification for curtailing fundamental liberties? These queries paint three pictures portrayed in this book. First, they portray the present-day significance of the Supreme Court's partially discredited, yet never overruled, 1944 decision upholding the constitutional validity of the mass Japanese American exclusion leading to indefinite incarceration - a decision later found to be driven by the government's presentation of'intentional falsehoods'and'willful historical inaccuracies'to the Court. Second, the queries implicate prospects for judicial independence in adjudging Harassment, Exclusion, Incarceration disputes in contemporary America and beyond. Third, and even more broadly for security and liberty controversies, the queries engage the American populace in shaping law and policy at the ground level by placing the courts'legitimacy on center stage. They address how critical legal advocacy and organized public pressure targeting judges and policymakers - realpolitik advocacy - at times can foster judicial fealty to constitutional principles while promoting the elective branches accountability for the benefit of all Americans. This book addresses who we are as Americans and whether we are genuinely committed to democracy governed by the Constitution.

With a foreword by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. An Engaging, Accessible Guide to the Bill of Rights for Everyday Citizens. In The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide, award-winning author and constitutional scholar Linda R. Monk explores the remarkable history of the Bill of Rights amendment by amendment, the Supreme Court's interpretation of each right, and the power of citizens to enforce those rights. Stories of the ordinary people who made the Bill of Rights come alive are featured throughout. These include Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi sharecropper who became a national civil rights leader; Clarence Earl Gideon, a prisoner whose handwritten petition to the Supreme Court expanded the right to counsel; Mary Beth Tinker, a 13-year-old whose protest of the Vietnam War established free speech rights for students; Michael Hardwick, a bartender who fought for privacy after police entered his bedroom unlawfully; Suzette Kelo, a nurse who opposed the city's takeover of her working-class neighborhood; and Simon Tam, a millennial whose 10-year trademark battle for his band'The Slants'ended in a unanimous Supreme Court victory. Such people prove that, in the words of Judge Learned Hand,'Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court, can save it.'Exploring the history, scope, and meaning of the first ten amendments-as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, which nationalized them and extended new rights of equality to all-The Bill of Rights: A User's Guide is a powerful examination of the values that define American life and the tools that every citizen needs.

Human rights can be defined as the basic fundamental rights inherent to all human beings in any society. How these rights are made available and protected in individual countries is an area of much study and debate. Focusing on the significance of human rights in American law and politics, this book seeks to understand when, where, and how American law recognizes and responds to claims made in the name of human rights. How are they used by social movements as they advance rights claims? When are human rights claims accommodated and resisted? Do particular kinds of human rights claims have greater resonance domestically than others? What cultural and psychological factors impede the development of a human rights culture in the United States? This is an exciting and engaging volume that will appeal to a broad range of scholars, practitioners, and students interested in the study of human rights.

When members of the media address politicians or report on social problems they assume that whatever issues are important in society must be a matter of public or state concern. Yet, the state or government is but a small part of any human society. Machan asserts that while the exact nature of government is a complicated question, only a totalitarian government aims to assume responsibility for every possible concern of its citizenry. Machan believes that the concept'public'is too broadly used to mean any problem that vocal citizens want government to address. Private Rights, Public Illusions focuses on the proper scope of government authority, especially in regard to people's economic or commercial affairs.The public realm is one wherein we must act collectively and subordinate individual will to a common purpose. But, according to Machan, in the rest of our spheres of concern no such subjugation is necessary or even desirable. Because he sees the public realm as smaller than is generally believed, he argues that if government continues to intervene in affairs outside this public realm, then restrictions on individual liberties will become an obstacle to society's important progress. Private Rights, Public Illusions combines empirical with philosophical analysis and argument. Its radical critique of government intervention will be of interest to policymakers, philosophers, and political scientists, and theorists.From the foreword by Nicholas Rescher,'[Machan] clearly sees that the state that protects is a state that controls, and that an all-controlling state is to all intents and purposes a prison. Deeply rooted in a widely informed background in political philosophy and American constitutional thought, Machan's book issues a clarion call against such an assault on citizen sovereignty and individual rights... [He] proceeds to examine a great host of issues in the domain of contemporary public policy disputes: governmental regulation, prior restraint, occupational health and safety, the right to know, pollution control, product liability, freedom of expressions, and various others. His discussion does not simply ride some ideological hobby horse—as so many in this area do—but is deeply concerned to ground its deliberations in a combined care for philosophical principles, empirical realities, and contemporary texts.'

This book sets out the critical controversies which are necessary for an understanding of the nature of international human rights and their relation to U.S. foreign policy. It considers the human rights policies pursued by the United States in international organizations.

The core idea underlying human rights is that everyone is inherently and equally worthy of respect as a person. The emergence of that idea has been one of the most significant international developments since the Second World War. But it is one thing to embrace something as an aspirational ideal and quite another to recognize it as enforceable law. The continued development of the international human rights regime brings a pressing question to the fore: What role should international human rights have as law within the American legal system?The U.S. Supreme Court and the Domestic Force of International Human Rights Law examines this question through the prism of the U.S. Supreme Court's handling of controversies bearing most closely on it. It shows that the specific disputes the Court has addressed can be best understood by recognizing how each interconnects with an overarching debate over the proper role to be accorded international human rights law within American institutions. By approaching the subject from the justices'standpoint, this book reveals a divide in the Court between two fundamentally different orientations toward the domestic impact of the international human rights regime.

تولت شركة المحاماة التي يعمل بها المؤلف مهمة الدفاع عن سوزان لينداور في القضية التي رفعتها الحكومة الأمريكية عليها، متهمة إياها بالعمل لصالح جهاز الاستخبارات العراقي بطريقة غير قانونية، ويؤكد المؤلف أن قصة سوزان صادمة لكنها حقيقية، إنها قصة مهمة في هذا العهد السياسي الجديد الذي أعقب هجمات الحادي عشر من سبتمبر عام 2001 م.

The American Freedoms Primer is a compilation of the most historically significant speeches and writings on liberty, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Many of the declarations contained in these pages have influenced and inspired legislation, shaping United States policies on human equality and civil rights. Several works by theorists and philosophers who drove the expansion of capitalism and democracy are included, such as John Locke, Edmund Burke, and Samuel Adams.Several of this nation's founding fathers contribute seminal works as well, including, but not limited to, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison. Abraham Lincoln's Inaugural Address, Emancipation Proclamation, and his Gettysburg Address are all in here, as are the works of other nineteenth century philosophical and legal geniuses, such as Daniel Webster, Frederick Douglass, and Theodore Roosevelt.Finally, of the great twentieth-century orators and writers on civil liberties, this book draws from Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr, and several others.This pocket-sized book will inspire and educate.

Civil Rights in American Law, History, and Politics charts the ambiguous and contested meanings of civil rights in law and culture and confronts important questions about race in contemporary America. How important is civil rights in America's story of possibility and change? How has it transformed the very meaning of citizenship and identity in American culture? Why does the subject of race continue to haunt the American imagination and play such a large role in political and legal debates? Do affirmative action and multiculturalism promise a way out of racial polarization, or do they sharpen and deepen it? Are there new and better ways to frame our commitment to equal justice? This book brings together the work of five distinguished scholars to critically assess the place of civil rights in the American story. It offers different ways of talking about civil rights and frames through which we can address issues of civil rights in the future.

The European architecture for the protection of fundamental rights combines the legal regimes of the states, the European Union, and the European Convention on Human Rights. The purpose of this book is to analyse the constitutional implications of this multilevel architecture and to examine the dynamics that spring from the interaction between different human rights standards in Europe. The book adopts a comparative approach, and through a comparison with the federal system of the United States, it advances an analytical model that systematically explains the dynamics at play in the European multilevel human rights architecture. It identifies two recurrent challenges in the interplay between different state and transnational human rights standards-a challenge of ineffectiveness, when transnational law operates as a ceiling of protection for a specific human right, and a challenge of inconsistency when transnational law operates as a floor-and considers the most recent transformations taking place in the European human rights regime. The book tests the model of challenges and transformations by examining in depth four case studies: the right to due process for suspected terrorists, the right to vote for non-citizens, the right to strike and the right to abortion. In light of these examples, the book then concludes by reassessing the main theories on the protection of fundamental rights in Europe and making the case for a new vision-a'neo-federal'theory-which is able to frame the dilemmas of identity, equality and supremacy behind the European multilevel architecture for the protection of human rights.

Many Americans reference the Bill of Rights, a document that represents many of the freedoms that define the United States. Who doesn't know about the First Amendment's freedom of religion or Second Amendment's right to bear arms? In this pocket-sized volume, Akhil Reed Amar and Les Adams offer a wealth of knowledge about the Bill of Rights that goes beyond a basic understanding.The Bill of Rights Primer is an authoritative guide to all American freedoms. Uncluttered and well-organized, this text is perfect for those who want to study up on the Bill of Rights without needing a law degree to do so.This elementary guidebook presents a short historical survey of the people, events, decrees, legislation, writings, and cultural milestones, in England and the American colonies, that influenced the Founding Fathers as they drafted the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. With helpful comments and fun facts in the margins, the book will provide a deeper understanding of the Bill of Rights, exhibiting that it is not a stagnant document but one with an evolving meaning shaped by historical events, such as the American Civil War and Reconstruction.

What is the source of rights? Rights have been grounded in divine agency, human nature, and morally justified claims, and have been used to assess the moral status of legal and customary social practices. The orthodoxy is that some of our rights are a species of unrecognized or natural rights. For example, black slaves in antebellum America were said to have such rights, and this was taken to provide a basis for establishing the immorality of slavery. Derrick Darby exposes the main shortcomings of the orthodox conception of the source of rights and proposes a radical alternative. He draws on the legacy of race and racism in the USA to argue that all rights are products of social recognition. This bold, lucid and meticulously argued book will inspire readers to rethink the central role assigned to rights in moral, political, and legal theory as well as in everyday evaluative discourse.

Der 11. September 2001 hat die Welt verändert. Sowohl in den USA als auch in Deutschland haben die Terroranschläge die Menschen nachhaltig in Angst versetzt. Anhand einer Untersuchung von Meinungsumfragen wird gezeigt, dass dies die Bereitschaft der Bevölkerung, Einschränkungen von bürgerlichen Freiheiten zugunsten gesteigerter Sicherheitsbedingungen hinzunehmen, verstärkt hat. Dabei fanden vor allem Maßnahmen, die sich kollektiv oder auf Individuen ungeliebter Gesellschaftsgruppen auswirken Zuspruch. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Fürsprecher stärkerer Sicherheitsbedingungen in beiden Ländern diese sich bietende Gelegenheit genutzt haben, um weitreichende Gesetzesänderungen wie den USA PATRIOT ACT und die deutschen Antiterrorgesetze I und II durchzusetzen. Diese Gesetze implementieren Maßnahmen, die zuvor jahrelang erfolgreich von Verfechtern bürgerlicher Freiheiten abgewehrt wurden. Anhand einer Untersuchung der Überwachungsgesetze beider Länder vor und nach dem 11. September wird belegt, dass Voraussetzungen für eine effektive staatliche Kontrolle, sowohl im geheimdienstlichen als auch Kriminalitätsbekämpfungssektor bereits vor 2001 vorhanden waren. Weiterhin wird dargestellt, dass die Anschläge dazu genutzt wurden, Befugnisse der Exekutive zu stärken und gleichzeitig, vor allem in den USA aber zunehmend auch in Deutschland einer gerichtlichen Kontrolle zu entziehen. Darüber hinaus werden die harschen Folgen für'ungewollte'oder'verdächtige'Ausländer nachgewiesen, indem die Behandlung Fremder vor dem 11. September mit dem Ausmaß der amerikanischen'Wegsperrtaktik'und dem deutschen Ansatz der grundrechtsfeindlichen und nahezu absoluten Datenüberwachung nach den Terroranschlägen verglichen wird. Anhand immer weiter reichender Gesetzesvorschläge, wie der, der zur erfolgreich eingeführten Antiterrordatei in Deutschland und dem gescheiterten'PATRIOT Act II'in den USA geführt hat, wird des Weiteren die Annahme untermauert, dass die Verschiebung des Gleichgewichtes zwischen bürgerlicher Freiheit und Sicherheit zugunsten der Sicherheit nur durch ein anhaltendes Klima der Angst weiter vorangetrieben wird. Im Gegensatz zu den USA hält sich in Deutschland ein derartiges Klima auf Grund wiederholter Anschlägen in Europa. Die Arbeit schließt mit der Einsicht, dass trotz unterschiedlich ausgestalteter Maßnahmen vor allem die Gewaltenkontrolle nach dem 11. September in Mitleidenschaft gezogen wurde und Verfechter stärkerer Sicherheitsmaßnahmen sich nie zufrieden geben, sondern anhaltend versuchen immer weiter reichende Maßnahmen durchzusetzen, die auch die'normale'Bevölkerung betreffen, solange sich die Möglichkeit bietet.

In this incisive and insightful book, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano peels back the legal veneer and shows how politicians, judges, prosecutors, and bureaucrats are trampling the U.S. Constitution in the name of law and order and fighting terrorism. Napolitano reveals how they: silence the First Amendmentshoot holes in the Secondbreak some laws to enforce othersentrap citizenssteal private propertyseize evidence without warrantimprison without chargekill without cause Pundits on the right, left, and center have praised Constitutional Chaos for its penetrating examination of our rights and liberties in the post-9/11 world.'Has the war on terrorism taken away some of your rights? In a non-ideological way, Judge Andrew P. Napolitano answers that crucial question. This book will open your eyes.'-Bill O'Reilly'This book is a wake-up call for all who value personal freedom and limited government.'-Rush Limbaugh'In all of the American media, Judge Napolitano is the most persistent, uncompromising guardian of both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution...'-Nat Hentoff Judge Andrew P. Napolitano is Fox News Channel's senior judicial analyst, seen by millions on The Big Story with John Gibson, The O'Reilly Factor, Fox and Friends, and other shows. Hisarticles and commentaries have been published in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Newark Star Ledger, and other national publications.

Examining the legal foundations of the war on terror, this book investigates the loss of the civil liberties of American citizens and legal immigrants. In a detailed look at bills such as the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, the USA Patriot Act, and the Homeland Security Act, and executive orders, it provides a comprehensive picture of the war on terror and explores the claimed victories by the Bush administration. Chronicling the major battles with Muslim charities, immigrants, lawyers, and'enemy combatants,'this exposé reveals how the values and freedoms of all Americans are at risk or have already been destroyed. Also surveyed is the growing grassroots dissent by groups such as the ACLU and the resistance movement against the policies and major figures of the Bush administration.

From the Supreme Court's decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1955 to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968--African American students, lawyers, ministers and communities conducted a successful nonviolent campaign against the system of American apartheid in eleven states. This work is organized into four sections. The first describes apartheid in the U.S. before Brown v. Board of Education. The causes of the revolution--the enforcement of apartheid laws by state governments, courts, police, and the KKK--are also analyzed. The second presents 54 confrontations in the struggle for Civil Rights--including court cases, boycotts, sit-ins, marches, demonstrations, and the desegregation of cities and schools--from the Moton High student strike (in Farmville, Virginia) in 1951 to 1969's hospital workers'strike in Charleston. The third is a series of 60 biographical profiles of leaders giving their educational and civil rights achievements. This section also includes a list of 40 historically significant activist organizations. The fourth section discusses six important Civil Rights laws and concludes with the general accomplishments of the struggle.

A readable review of state and local tyranny and a call for the kind of federalism that was meant to limit both federal and state abuses of liberty.

Constitutionalism and Rights explores the ambivalent relationship between the American tradition of constitutionalism and the notions of rights that have emerged over the last three centuries. The six essays focus systematically on selected tensions between these two fundamental strands in the American tradition of liberty and self-government. Discussed are: ideas of rights and constitutionalism generally; mechanisms and procedures necessary to assure rights in a large bureaucratic state; rights as expressed in public welfare programs; innovations employed by the eighteenth-century Framers to achieve limited government as a means to securing fair and equal individual freedom; the dependence of rights on institutional devices and the rule of law; the need for public virtue (balancing individual rights with self-sacrifice for the common good) if the American constitutional system is to survive; and the dangers of individualism and individual rights posed by modern liberalism.The essayists are prominent scholars representing the disciplines of political science, government, and law. They all state their confidence in the American constitutional system, but they also voice doubts about the future if problems are not redressed. The editors conclude their introduction by expressing hope that this volume “will clarify some important issues and help us remember essential lessons of the past, as we continue in this great public conversation.”Constitutionalism and Rights is the first of a three-volume series examining significant features of the Constitution. The series, inspired by the bicentennial of that great achievement, consists of essays presented by scholars at three conferences on the Constitution held at Brigham Young University in 1985, 1986, and 1987, and several additional essays written especially for these volumes.Gary C. Bryner is an assistant professor of political science at Brigham Young University. Noel B. Reynolds is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University.