Patricia Carr, age 13, of Columbus, Ohio, for her question:
WHAT EXACTLY ARE CIVIL RIGHTS?
Civil rights are the freedoms and rights that a person may have as a member of a community, state or nation. Civil rights include freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
Among other civil rights are the right to own property and the right to receive fair and equal treatment from the government, other persons and from private groups.
Some people draw a distinction between civil liberties and civil rights. They regard civil liberties as guarantees to a person against government interference. They think of civil rights as a guarantee of equal treatment for all persons. Actually, "civil rights" refers to both civil liberties and civil rights.
All civil rights have limits, even in democratic countries. A person may not use civil rights to justify actions that might seriously harm the health, welfare, safety or morals of others.
It was summed up well in 1919 with this statement by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting `fire' in a theater and causing a panic."
The U.S. Constitution describes the basic civil rights of American citizens. The first 10 amendments to the Constitution are usually regarded as the U.S. Bill of Rights.
The First Amendment is the basis of democratic process in the U.S. It forbids Congress to pass laws restricting freedom of speech, of the press, of peaceful assembly or of petition. Many consider freedom of speech the most important freedom and the formation of all other freedoms.
The idea that people have certain rights that cannot be taken away probably began thousands of years ago with the theory of natural law. This theory states that a natural order exists in the universe because all things are created by nature, or God.
The theory of natural law says that anything that detracts from man's human qualities, or prevents their full achievement, violates the laws of nature.
The ancient Greek philosophers and the writers of the old Testament stressed that there is a higher law than man's law.
Some of the most historic English legal documents are based on the principles of natural law. The earliest and most famous was Magna Carta, which King John approved against his will in 1215. The document placed the king himself under the law.
Natural law had always stressed the duties more than the rights of government and individuals. But during the late 1600s, the natural law tradition began to emphasize natural rights.
Much of the Western tradition of freedom and nearly all civil rights laws have resulted from the theories of natural law and natural rights.