Simone Lawson
The US Constitution outlines the country's judicial system and protects citizens' rights. It includes a Bill of Rights, which protects people's civil liberties, allowing them to live their lives according to their own consciences. The Constitution also protects citizens against 'bills of attainder', 'ex post facto' laws, and religious requirements for public office candidates. It guarantees each state a Republican form of government and protects them against invasion and domestic violence.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Right to trial by jury in all criminal cases | Article Three |
| Right to "habeas corpus" | Article I, Section 9 |
| Right to live according to one's own conscience | The Bill of Rights |
| Right to equal protection of the laws | Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments |
| Right to be free from "ex post facto" laws | The Constitution of 1787 |
| Right to be free from "bills of attainder" | The Constitution of 1787 |
| Right to be free from religious requirements for public office | The Constitution of 1787 |
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What You'll Learn
The right to trial by jury in all criminal cases
Article Three gives federal courts the authority to interpret and apply the law to a particular case, as well as the power to punish, sentence, and direct future action to resolve conflicts. This article is part of the Constitution's outline of the US judicial system, which was filled in by Congress in the Judiciary Act of 1789.
The right to trial by jury is a key legal practice protected by the Constitution. The Constitution is a charter of negative liberties, which tells the federal government or the state to leave people alone. It does not require the federal government or the state to provide services, even something as basic as maintaining law and order.
The right to trial by jury is also protected by the Bill of Rights, which safeguards people's civil liberties. Civil liberties allow people to live their own lives according to their own consciences, while civil rights generally refer to matters of equality.
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The right to live according to one's own conscience
The original U.S. Constitution mentions very few specific rights, and those that are mentioned deal primarily with legal practices. For example, Article I, Section 9 protects the right of habeas corpus, which means that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned without due process. Article Three also protects the right to a trial by jury in all criminal cases and defines the crime of treason.
The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution following the Civil War, with the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. These amendments outlawed slavery, forbade racial discrimination in voting, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection under the law. However, it is important to note that these civil rights went largely unenforced for the next century.
In summary, the right to live according to one's own conscience is a fundamental principle protected by the Bill of Rights in the U.S. Constitution. This right allows individuals to make their own choices and live their lives in accordance with their personal beliefs, free from government interference in their personal affairs.
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The right to be free from religious requirements for public office
The First Amendment of the US Constitution also includes the Establishment Clause, which explicitly prohibits the US Congress from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion". However, neither the First Amendment nor Article VI was originally applied to individual states, and state-level requirements for public office were not entirely abolished until 1961.
In the late 1700s, Americans might have thought that religious tests for public office did not abridge anyone's right to religious freedom. They may have seen it as simply limiting access to a privilege—holding public office—which no one had a right to possess.
However, in 1961, a number of lawsuits were initiated to secure the right to hold public office without conforming to religious requirements. This culminated in the 1961 Supreme Court case of Torcaso v. Watkins, which struck down religious qualifications for all public officeholders. The Supreme Court of South Carolina also followed this precedent in 1997 in the case of Silverman v. Campbell, holding that certain articles of the South Carolina State Constitution requiring belief in a "Supreme Being" to hold office conflicted with the US Constitution and could not be enforced.
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The right to be free from ex post facto laws
Ex post facto laws are prohibited by the United States Constitution. This means that Congress cannot pass any laws that apply ex post facto, and neither can individual states.
Ex post facto laws are those that retroactively create a crime where none existed before. In other words, they are laws that criminalise actions after they have been committed, when those actions were legal at the time they were performed.
The prohibition against ex post facto laws reinforces the idea that the government cannot punish someone retroactively for an action they took that was lawful at the time. This protects citizens against potential abuses of government power.
In most cases, due process means that someone cannot be punished by the government without a trial. The prohibition against bills of attainder reinforces this idea.
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The right to be free from bills of attainder
Bills of attainder are acts of a legislature that declare a person or group of people guilty of a crime and provide for a punishment, often without a trial. They were used in the Middle Ages as a way for the king to convict subjects of crimes and confiscate their property without the need for a conviction or evidence. The first use of a bill of attainder was in 1321 against Hugh le Despenser, 1st Earl of Winchester, and his son Hugh Despenser the Younger, Earl of Gloucester.
Bills of attainder undermine the separation of powers by allowing the legislature to assume judicial magistracy and pronounce upon the guilt of a party without any of the common forms and guards of a trial. The legislature exercises the highest power of sovereignty and what has been deemed an "irresponsible despotic discretion", being governed solely by what it deems political necessity or expediency.
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Frequently asked questions
The Bill of Rights protects people's civil liberties, which allow them to live their own lives according to their own consciences.
Article Three of the Constitution protects the right to trial by jury in all criminal cases. It also defines the crime of treason.
Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution protects the right of "habeas corpus" (Latin for "you may have the body").
