ABSTRACT
Civil liberties are dened as the freedoms enjoyed by individuals in a demo-cratic society. ey constitute the choices individuals are free to make with little or no interference from governmental authority. Choosing and practicing religious beliefs, speaking our minds, and seeking to form associations of likeminded people are examples of freedoms that American citizens are granted by the Constitution. Civil liberties thus boil down to the core democratic principle of political freedom: they represent a basic guarantee that individual citizens are free to make their own choices and to select their own goals and the means to achieve them.
