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Civil Rights Overview: History and Background
The term "civil rights" encompasses many different laws and ideas, thus is is useful to begin with a basic overview of the concept of civil rights generally. What are civil rights? Where do civil rights come from? What recourse to citizens have when their rights are violated? This overview will begin to provide the answers to these basic questions. Below you will find links to the different sections within FindLaw's overview of the legal concepts of civil rights and unlawful discrimination, links to key federal laws and U.S. Supreme Court cases on civil rights, and much more.
Civil Rights: The Basics
- What Are Civil Rights? - contains a basic definition of civil rights.
- Where Do Civil Rights Come From? - an overview of the sources of civil rights in the U.S.
- Ten Things to Think About: The Bill of Rights - summary of the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
- Civil Rights vs. Civil Liberties - describes the differences between the concepts of "civil rights" and "civil liberties".
- What Is Discrimination? - what constitutes discriminatory behavior?
Civil Rights: Background
- Civil Rights: Law and History - traces the development of civil rights in the U.S.
- Civil Rights: Timeline of Events - lists some of the most important events in the history of civil rights.
- Civil Rights and Discrimination Glossary - contains definitions for key civil rights terms.
- Civil Rights Laws - lists and describes law pertaining to civil rights.
- Civil Rights: U.S. Supreme Court Cases - highlights the most important civil rights decisions to come out of the Supreme Court.
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