Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
Introduction
Protection of individual rights elaborated in the bill of rights is facilitated by the constitution through the incorporation of the due process of law, the state of action doctrine and the equal protection clause (Brennan and William 56). The doctrine of due process in the 14th amendment ensures the state will not dispossess an individual of liberty, property or life unaccompanied by application of the necessary procedure of legislation. Notably, the doctrine of the expected process of law lays hold of rights in the bill of rights and relates them to the State. Secondly, the state of action doctrine refers to any government action in this case local governments are considered arms of the state. It acts as a backup plan to the bill of rights in coverage of private conduct. The state of action clause empowers Congress to pass laws that apply constitutional standards to private conduct. Finally, equal protection clause undertakes constitutional mandate to protect citizens from discrimination based on race or disability notwithstanding other factors. The doctrine offers legal guarantee that no group or person will be repudiated legal protection that is enjoyed by similar groups or persons.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
Individual liberties refer to the rights of each person to pursue goals and life without constraint from other people or the government (Monk and Linda 7). Individual rights include liberty to live, liberty to freedom, right to privacy, liberty to pursue goals and dreams, liberty to seek happiness, right to protect oneself and one’s family, liberty to think, speech, work and right to worship. Justice, on the other hand, is a legal system which protects both legal and natural rights as well as punishing wrongs using fairness. The bill of rights is a conventional statement of the civil and legal liberties of the people of any state, federation or country (Monk and Linda 13). The first eight amendments are procedural and essential individual rights. The 9th and 10th encompass amendments of general rules of the association between citizens, states and the federal government.
The constitution does a good job of protection of individual rights because, first of all, it is a fundamental task that aims at creating a free society, the core of American democracy where each right bears a responsibility. Prejudice and the repression of rights are the incentives of instability (Freeman 21). The constitution also eliminates doctrinal confusion by providing a mechanism for interpretation of what constitute rights hence facilitating the protection of such rights. Individual liberties are crucial for free markets, protection of these rights such as liberty to own private property and the right to judicial remedy are prerequisites for promoting economic growth, entrepreneurship and investment.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
SECTION I: THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE
The basic requirement of the legal due process is that an individual ought to have a chance for hearing before deprivation of life any important property or liberty. Legal due process lays hold of liberties and relates them to the state. In the case of Gitlow v. New York, it was established by the Supreme Court that the First Amendment pertaining liberty to free speech as among the liberties safeguarded by the Due Process Doctrine. As per the Supreme Court, both the federal government and state government should not deny an individual his statutory right to speech. Supreme Court decisions are regarded to have greatly affected every other area, criminal civil of state action to the extent of affecting state court judges. However, both state and federal courts are ought to be custodians of individual liberties.
The expected process of law provision relates during instances which the state acts against citizens when some features unique to them are involved. Before the government s terminates a welfare recipient’s benefits, the government must provide a full hearing before the litigation officer. The essential expected process offers the provision of law on things such as the right to marry, parenthood and work in an ordinary kind of job. Decisions enforcing the guarantee of the due process explains the importance of property and liberty in light of situations in existence in modern society. Property embraces substantive presumptions such as driver’s license and the legal entitlement to minimal economic aid, workingman’s wages as well as continued ownership and consumption of commodities purchased under conditional sale contracts.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
The right to a fast and public litigation undertaken by an equitable jury as well as the right to have a mandatory procedure for obtaining witnesses is fundamental for the due process. The conception of liberty recognizes undeniable propositions that prisoners and paroles retain some vestiges of human dignity, hence prison and parole process ought to provide some form of notification and hearing prior to confinement in solitary or the renunciation of parole.
The Supreme Court finds no autonomy interest in the reputation of a person who has on no occasion been tried and thus not convicted who bears a public brand of a criminal by the police without benefit of notice.
Activities withholding the due process are against the law. To illustrate this, concepts of liberty and property recognize that under modern circumstances, incumbent public employees may not have their logical expectation of extended employment, and school children liberty to a public education revoked without notice and opportunity to be heard.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
SECTION II: EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE
The equal protection doctrine needs states to execute equal protection. Equal protection compels a state to govern fairly not draw distinctions between persons solely on differences that are peripheral to a genuine government aim. As such it is the statutory assurance that no individual or group will be repudiated constitutional protection that is enjoyed by similar individuals or groups (Barnes 394). The Supreme Court in use of the uniform safety of the United States federal law currently prohibits discrimination in housing based on religion, race, color, origin, sex, national or handicap, conversely, it permits discrimination against children only in eligible elderly citizen population. Status and rights of aliens, access to courts, abortion and voting requires equal protection.
Political process concept under equal protection doctrine prohibits admissions based on racial inclination by implementing statutes benefitting racial minorities to an increasingly cumbersome political process than that imposed on other statutes. The state is prohibited from inflicting extra burdens beyond those of political process on laws benefitting minorities (Barnes 393). Correspondingly, the Supreme Court ratified a state constitutional amendment that, inter alia, forbid public universities from using race as a component in the admissions process. Plurality’s test consequences count as racial damages in addition to being imprecise requiring the kind of race-based examination that the five conservative justices have consistently pursued to abolish. The concept applies firm investigation when the political procedure and decision-making methods used to address racially responsive statute is singled out for strange and unfavorable treatment.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
In the case of City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc., it was held by Supreme Court that less privileged individuals are only qualified to logical basis review under the equal protection clause. State laws still prejudice against people with disabilities, most individuals with a psychiatric disorder in voting, commitment proceedings, provision licenses as well as welfare benefits. Statutes by the federal governments are implemented so as to confront exclusions created by states’ laws (Waterstone and Michael 541). The first title of the Americans with Disability Act forbids prejudice on less privileged individuals in work set up and ensures that institutions accommodate them at their cost hence promoting inclusion of persons with disabilities in the work environment. Additionally, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act disallows prejudice against less privileged people in structures receiving federal economic assian stance.
In the light of the equal protection clause, people with disability ought to be protected against discrimination and should access equal opportunities as other citizens. Political process doctrine protects individual rights of racial minorities and prohibits racial based discrimination. The doctrine offers a constitutional guarantee that the state shall practice equal protection to all citizens.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
SECTION III: STATE OF ACTION DOCTRINE
The state of action requirement constitutes the legislative amendments protecting individual liberty specifically the bill of rights as well as the 14th amendment often described as prohibitions against state action. Litigations alleging statutory violations on state action must prove how the state or federal government is liable for violations of such rights. To begin with, Congress is prohibited from making a law infringing upon the liberties of religion as well as speech (Mack and Kenneth 351). No state shall contravene the right of fair litigation by an impartial jury, nor the liberty of conscience. In spite of this, the doctrine is viewed as contradictory and inconsistent. However, this doctrine offers the support framework for other doctrines such as due process of law and equal protection clause which all are mechanisms for the protection of individual liberty by the legislation. Additionally, state action clause helps in mitigating the state’s power against infringement of the individual rights.
The 14th Amendment provides that people and private institutions do not have a statutory right to run and operate devoid of legislative norms mandating fairness, tolerance, and equality (Mack and Kenneth 370). For instance, privately owned organizations do not have a legal right to discriminate on the basis of race. State action clause does not defend the rights of people to be at the liberty of state control but rather empowers rights of the citizens to democratically establish the society they wish to live in.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
All states ought not strip of any citizen life, property as well as liberty in the absence of application of expected process legislation or renounce any individual in the range of its authority the uniform conservation of the laws. The government ought not to invade the fundamental rights of the people because the state is mainly a servant of its citizen based on the priority of constitutional values (Mack and Kenneth 364). The rights of the citizen rank above the powers of government thus State’s action is subject to people’s fundamental rights. Constitutional law is central to United State’s society and our system of law. It forms a democracy governed by the majority rule with protection against the majority rule if unconstitutional. The undeniable rights of fairness, liberty and equality are shielded from interference even when the majority of the people wish to violate those rights. The duty to execute its prohibitions against state action responsibility is vested with the courts.
To sum up, the political question doctrine supplements situations where the constitutional law does not relate or where it occurs in a mild form. Additionally, the 14th Amendment clause limits powers of the state against any instances of violation of individual rights.
Constitutional Protection – Individual Rights
Conclusion
Protection of individual liberties is achieved via the application of due process of law, the state of action doctrine and the equal protection c0ncepts as explained above. (Brennan and William 56). The state ought not to dispossess an individual of liberty, life or property without application of the due procedure of law. The state of action doctrine acts as a backup plan to the bill of rights in coverage of private conduct and also empowers Congress to pass laws that apply constitutional standards to private conduct. Finally, equal protection clause undertakes constitutional mandate to protect citizens from discrimination based on race or disability offering a constitutional guarantee. MLA.
Works Cited
Freeman, Michael. Human rights. John Wiley & Sons, 2017.
Brennan Jr, William J. “State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights.” Harvard Law Review, vol. 90, no. 3, Jan. 1977, p. 489. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=8604796&site=ehost-live.
Barnes, Jeb. “Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause: Congressional Power, Judicial Doctrine, and Constitutional Law.” Political Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), vol. 132, no. 2, Summer 2017, pp. 393–394. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/polq.12648.
Waterstone, Michael E. “Disability Constitutional Law.” Emory Law Journal, vol. 63, no. 3, Jan. 2014, pp. 527–580. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=94773927&site=ehost-live.
Mack, Kenneth W. “Civil Disobedience, State Action, and Lawmaking outside the Courts: Robert Bell’s Encounter with American Law.” Journal of Supreme Court History, vol. 39, no. 3, Nov. 2014, pp. 347–371. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5818.2014.12053.x.
Monk, Linda R. The Bill of Rights: A User’s Guide. Hachette Books, 2018