Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
The distinction
Civil liberties protect individuals from government action (speech, religion, criminal procedure). Civil rights guarantee equal treatment and protect against discrimination by government and, under statutes, by private actors. Mixing these up is the most common error on this material.
Applying the Bill of Rights
Originally the Bill of Rights bound only the federal government (Barron v. Baltimore, 1833). Selective incorporation through the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause applied most protections to the states, one right at a time.
Speech and religion
Speech tests progressed from clear and present danger to Brandenburg's imminent lawless action standard. Symbolic speech is protected (Tinker, Texas v. Johnson); prior restraint is presumed invalid. Establishment clause analysis uses the Lemon three-part test; free exercise protects belief absolutely but conduct conditionally, and neutral generally applicable laws survive (Employment Division v. Smith).
Rights of the accused
Mapp (exclusionary rule), Gideon (counsel), Miranda (warnings), Katz (reasonable expectation of privacy).
Equal protection
Courts apply strict scrutiny to race, intermediate scrutiny to sex, and rational basis to most other classifications. Key statutes and amendments: Civil Rights Act of 1964 (public accommodations upheld via the commerce power; Title VII employment), Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Nineteenth, and Twenty-fourth Amendments. Unenumerated privacy rights derive from penumbras (Griswold); Dobbs (2022) overturned Roe and returned abortion regulation to the states.
Rule of thumb
Identify the classification first, then the level of scrutiny - the answer usually follows.