The purpose of the Bill of Rights was to guarantee the individual rights of citizens under the Constitution. These are listed in the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Knowing the tendencies of governments to infringe on the rights of its citizens, many involved in writing the Constitution felt that these rights should be explicitly stated. In this way, the federal government could not arbitrarily abridge them.
The Bill of Rights restricts the powers and authority of the Federal Government and establishes many of the civil and political rights enjoyed in the United States, including the right to due process of law and the freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition.
The Bill of Rights states what the government can and cannot do, and asserts the rights of the people, with which no law or government action should interfere.
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.
There are people out there who will argue that the security of the country is more important than the individual rights of the people.
in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed, nothing very important was going on. Oh, wait! The Vietnam War! I am sure that during that time, people could argue that the rights of African Americans were less important than other things that the country was dealing with. People probably argued "We need to get the war squared away, and THEN we can worry about the rights of African Americans"
Meanwhile, there were Afr.Am.'s fighting the Vietnam War.
"During the height of the U.S. involvement, 1965-69, blacks, who formed 11 percent of the American population, made up 12.6 percent of the soldiers in Vietnam. The majority of these were in the infantry, and although authorities differ on the figures, the percentage of black combat fatalities in that period was a staggering 14.9 percent, a proportion that subsequently declined. Volunteers and draftees included many frustrated blacks whose impatience with the war and the delays in racial progress in America led to race riots on a number of ships and military bases, beginning in 1968, and the services' response in creating interracial councils and racial sensitivity training. . . ."
Don't you DARE tell me that the rights of homosexuals is NOT the same! It IS! Homosexuals are PEOPLE! YES! Amazing to think of it that way!
I'm sorry, I don't mean to be an ass about the subject, but it has taken THIS long for them to be allowed to be WHO they are! The government has spent AGES giving reasons why Homosexuals should not have rights, or why it is not as important as something else. There are many gays in the military, we don't even know the numbers, but these people, just like heterosexuals have families, or want to have families.
Decide by state? Just like deciding if women should vote, would it be fair to decide by state? What about if Black people can marry White people, should that have been left up to the states? What about women owning land; on their own or if their husbands die?
It is IN FACT exactly the same!
In 1920 when Women received the right to vote, American was post WWI, working on the treaty of Versailles. How long did women rally before they received that right? Did it take so long because America had better things to do?
Do you really have an argument to say that Gay people are less important than Black People, or Women?
"hey who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Ben Franklin
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