Individual Rights in the Constitution

Individual Rights: Constitutional Role

Individual rights help protect citizens from abuse, exploitation, and coercion. Before the doctrine of individual rights became popularized in the Enlightenment, people did not have rights in the way we think of them today. Throughout Europe, the main governance system was a monarchy, where people's lives and their rights were in the hands of the king or queen. Many times, rulers did not always have the best interest of their subjects in mind.

Individual Rights marked an important shift toward a more representative government that didn't have absolute power. The protests in America about “no taxation without representation” came when King George III of England imposed excessive taxes on the colonies without giving them any rights in government. Because of this experience, the colonies wanted to create a new country where their rights were protected.

A painting depicting the Boston Tea Party, where colonists protested the excessive taxes on tea by dumping tea into the harbor. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Individual Rights in the Constitution: Examples

While the doctrine of individual rights was extremely important to the foundation of American Democracy, the first version of the Constitution did not actually mention individual rights. During the Constitutional Convention in 1787, delegates debated back and forth over whether the Constitution should specifically spell out rights or not.

Individual Rights in the Bill of Rights

After the delegates finished their draft of the Constitution in 1787, it became clearer that rights needed to be added. Some states said they would only ratify the Constitution if a Bill of Rights was added as an amendment. So, in 1789, the Bill of Rights was created. It makes up the first ten amendments to the Constitution.

A plaque commemorating the Bill of Rights. Source: Wikimedia Commons (CC By 2.0)

Rights of Conscience

Rights of Conscience have to do with a person’s own personal beliefs and practices. Basically, people should be allowed to act in accordance with their own conscience. Their inner thoughts and beliefs should be protected, and no person or government should be able to force people to believe or think a certain way. The rights under this category include the First Amendment, which protects:

• Freedom of religion

• Freedom of speech

• Freedom of the press

• The right to protest.

A monument in Berkeley, California, commemorating an activist who was arrested for handing out pamphlets about civil rights. Source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Rights of the Accused

Rights of the accused protect people whom the law wants to punish. These rights help prevent the government from being able to just imprison people it doesn’t like or take away people’s voices by throwing them in prison without reasonable cause.

Rights under this category include:

• The Fourth Amendment, which includes freedom from unlawful search and seizure.

• The Fifth Amendment, which protects the right to due process under the law and protection from self-incrimination (also known as "pleading the fifth"). It also protects people from deprivation of “life, liberty, or property."

• The Sixth Amendment, which protects the right to counsel (a lawyer or attorney), a speedy trial, a jury, a public trial, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusations.

• The Eighth Amendment, which protects the right to reasonable bail and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment.

Rights of Property

When it comes to rights, “property” doesn’t mean just owning a building or an acre of land. Some people also include the modern understanding of the “right to privacy” under this category by expanding the meaning of the Third Amendment to mean “the right to be left alone.”

Some of the rights that protect property are found in:

• The Third Amendment, which protects people from being forced to give up their houses to soldiers.

• The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from the government unlawfully searching or seizing their property.

Some people also include the Second Amendment in this category, which protects the right of citizens to “bear arms,” or own guns and other weapons.

Individual Rights in the Constitution: Later Amendments

The Bill of Rights formed an important basis for rights in the United States. But as time went on, it became clear that more rights were needed and that the legislature needed to amend the Constitution a few more times. The Bill of Rights was important, but it did not fully protect all citizens, especially minorities.

An anti-suffrage cartoon from 1920 that criticized the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote. Source: Wikimedia Commons

State Rights vs. Individual Rights

The Bill of Rights was specifically designed to protect people against the federal government infringing on their rights. However, it did not prohibit state governments from infringing on citizens’ rights, though some people interpreted the protections under the Bill of Rights to extend to states as well. Inevitably, this led to conflicts where citizens’ individual rights under the Bill of Rights were pitted against the state government’s rights.

Barron v. Baltimore (1833)

One of the first examples of this conflict was the landmark Supreme Court case Barron v. Baltimore (1833). A man named John Barron owned a wharf in the bay of Baltimore, but a city project was diverting dirt and debris into the bay. As a result, ships could barely dock there anymore.

Barron decided to sue the city of Baltimore, claiming that they had unlawfully taken his property without compensating him. Specifically, he said they violated the Fifth Amendment by unlawful seizure of his property to do their project. The trial court awarded him a fraction of the compensation he had requested, but then the Maryland Appellate Court overturned the decision and said the city didn't owe him money.

Barron took the case all the way to the Supreme Court, which decided that the rights under the Bill of Rights did NOT apply to states. This decision took some power away from state governments and led to the creation of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 which gave equal rights to African American citizens.