Civil Rights: An Overview

What are your civil rights? Basically, civil rights are those rights that you have as a result of the U.S. Constitution, federal laws, a state's constitution or a state's laws. A broad range of rights are included in the category of civil rights. Rights reserved to you by the U.S. Constitution in the Bill of Rights include your right to free speech, your right not to testify against yourself, your right to due process, and the right to vote if you are at least 18 years old. There are also federal laws that grant you civil rights. Examples of these include the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

What does it mean to have civil rights? Just because you have a "right to free speech" doesn't mean that you can say anything you want anywhere you want to say it. It does mean that the government can't interfere with your "right to free speech". For example, the government can't pass a law that makes it illegal for you to discuss your alien conspiracy theories in public or in private. Likewise, the government can't discriminate against you because of your alien conspiracy theory views by denying you government benefits for which you would otherwise be eligible. Ordinary people, not acting on behalf of the government, don't have any obligation to protect your free speech. So your friends can get together and decide that they aren't going to invite you to the barbeque because you'll dominate the conversation with your alien conspiracy theories. And your employer can prohibit you from sending alien conspiracy theory e-mails to everyone in the company. These people don't have any obligation not to interfere with your "free speech".

Some civil rights laws apply to people or entities that are not part of the government. An example of this is the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations. Under this law, the proprietor of a restaurant that is open to the public, for example, can't refuse service to someone because of his race. Employment discrimination laws are also examples of civil rights laws that apply to non-governmental entities as well as to the government. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, for example, applies to any employer with 20 or more employees. For an employer with less than 20 employees, your federal right not to be discriminated against in employment on the basis of your age, doesn't apply.

Civil rights laws may involve many other areas of the law, including employment law, family law, and criminal law. If your civil rights have been violated, you may be entitled to sue for damages. You may also be able to file an administrative complaint with certain government agencies that administer civil rights laws. Check out the Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights website at www.dhhs.org/ocr, the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights at www.ed.gov/offices/OCR, or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission at www.eeoc.org for additional information.