Darlene had been the only one among her friends and acquaintances who had stood up to the government officials who tried to shutter her business, just as they had destroyed thousands of other small businesses. Doing so had cost Darlene a lot of time, stress, money, and reputation. But in the end, law proved Darlene right. The government had broken its fundamental promise constituting its only authority over the people whom it governed, which was not police and the military but instead the consent of the people. And Darlene’s action didn’t just save her business. Darlene had saved the government from itself, preserving the slimmest measure of public tolerance for a government that had nearly destroyed itself.
Freedom
Law’s rule guarantees you freedom. Others have paid dearly so that you have the right and opportunity to exercise your freedom. Enjoy those freedoms to the fullest extent. They come at great cost. Freedoms of religion, speech, and association are all fundamental First Amendment rights. Exercise these freedoms fully while respecting the rights of others to do likewise. We are healthiest individually and communally when we do so. The law grants you these and other fundamental rights as privileges of your citizenship. Know your rights and responsibilities as a citizen, and exercise them to ensure your continued freedom. If you or your family members are not citizens, know that the law nonetheless guarantees non-citizens fundamental rights. The law even grants asylum and other protections to the undocumented alien, while further granting constitutional protections to the arrestee and prisoner. Consider the following discussion elaborating these freedoms.
Religion
The Founders’ decision to make freedom of religion the first right in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights was no coincidence. Federal and state constitutions and laws ensure that you have the right and opportunity to use that most fundamental of all rights to pursue your religion freely. The law enables you to be more than a nominal adherent. You may read, quote, and rely on religious scripture, attend and participate in religious services, study, learn, and teach religious doctrine, serve in religious missions, give to and receive from religious charities, and pray prayers and sing songs of faith, both publicly and privately. You would have none of these opportunities without the rule of law. Leaders in other countries without the rule of law ban, persecute, imprison, starve, torture, condemn, and kill peace-loving traditional religious adherents. To preserve your fullest religious freedom, the law prohibits the government from establishing religion. You get to choose, not the government. The First Amendment expressly restricts Congress from establishing or interfering with the free exercise of religion. The Fourteenth Amendment extends that protection to prohibit similar actions by state and local governments. Federal and state religious-freedom acts even prohibit neutral laws that substantially burden your freedom of religion. Federal statute creates a private right of action to enjoin government from interfering with your religious practices and to hold it liable in damages for your harm. Federal and state anti-discrimination laws ensure that your religion does not keep you from gaining and holding employment, or enjoying public services and accommodations. Retain a qualified lawyer if the government is interfering with your free exercise of religion.
Audit: Identify any interference you face with your free exercise of religion, in the following areas: (a) zoning officials refusing variances for houses of worship; (b) inspectors enforcing building codes to prevent religious uses; (c) local officials refusing to allow religious studies or meetings in homes; (d) local officials refusing to allow street preaching; (e) local officials requiring licenses for door-to-door religious workers; (f) schoolteachers refusing to allow children to sing worship songs, read scripture, or speak about religion; (g) employers refusing to accommodate religious clothing, symbols, worship, or prayer; (h) employers refusing to hire because of religion; (i) hotels, restaurants, and other places of public service and accommodation refusing service because of your religion; (j) laws prohibiting use of peyote or other substances in religious practices. Retain a qualified lawyer to help you address any of these issues.
Speech
The First and Fourteenth Amendments also protect your free speech and freedom of association from government interference. Free speech involves your right to express yourself as you wish on political and public issues, as to public figures, and artistically and in other ways. Free-speech rights even protect you in some cases from defamation actions as long as you are not reckless as to the truth or falsity of your statements. Freedom of association, coming from the First Amendment’s rights to assemble and petition the government, protects you against government interference when gathering with others to discuss and pursue political, economic, religious, cultural, or other matters. While officials may make reasonable content-neutral safety restrictions on the time, place, and manner of public speech and assemblies, government bodies should not be passing laws, rules, or regulations requiring licenses or other permission, or taking enforcement actions, based on the content of your speech or that unduly abridge these rights without compelling justification. Federal law creates a private civil right of action for damages and injunctions when government officials interfere with these rights. You may sue to preserve these rights. Federal, state, and local civil-rights laws extend these protections to places of public service and accommodation, preventing them from refusing you service because of your speech, memberships, and associations. If you work for the government, then your employer should not be using your free speech or your associations to adversely affect your employment. You may support the political candidate or cause you wish, without your public employer retaliating against you. The law may also entitle you to notice and hearing before demotion or termination from your public employment. Consult a qualified lawyer if you face official restrictions on your speech or association, or suffer adverse public-employment actions.
Audit: Identify any interference with your free-speech or freedom-of-association rights like the following: (a) denied a parade license; (b) refused use of public facilities; (c) required to disclose memberships; (d) refused public benefit; (e) refused public service or accommodation; (f) fired from or demoted in public employment without notice and hearing. Retain a qualified lawyer for assistance enforcing these and related free-speech and freedom-of-association rights.
Privacy
Law affords you protection against government and private intrusion into your privacy. The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit government actors from unreasonable searches. Police should not enter your premises or search your vehicle, bags, or clothing without probable cause to believe that a crime is ongoing or a warrant drawn on probable cause to believe that the location has evidence of a past crime. Police may seize crime evidence in public places or in plain view in private places to which they have legal access. State laws prohibit private individuals from invading your privacy. The criminal law of trespass holds individuals criminally responsible for entry onto private lands without permission, while civil tort claims for invasion of privacy hold individuals civilly liable to pay damages for harm from privacy invasions. Civil and criminal laws can protect privacy not only from personal invasions but also audio, video, or other electronic eavesdropping, snooping among your private financial or other records, and hacking into your electronic communications and digital files. Privacy laws ensure that you can act securely wherever you would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, whether in your home or other private space or in a public restroom or similar area designed for privacy. You also have statutory privacy rights relating to your school, medical, and employment information. Consult a qualified lawyer to enforce these rights and recover damages if others are violating your privacy.
Audit: Identify which of the following special and current privacy concerns you may have, based on your observations and experiences: (a) unauthorized access to your medical records; (b) unauthorized access to your school records; (c) unauthorized access to your employment records; (d) unauthorized access to your financial records; (e) unauthorized access to your digital files or electronic communications; (f) unauthorized video or audio recording of your private activities; (g) unauthorized public disclosure of your private information. Retain qualified legal counsel to redress any privacy violations.
Process
Law provides you with due process rights to fair notice and a fair hearing before an impartial decision maker, against government deprivations of your life, liberty, and property interests. Government officials should not be taking your personal property, denying or revoking your professional license or trade certification, shuttering your business with regulatory orders, expelling you from a public school or program, or taking other similar actions affecting your property and liberty interests, without due process. Due process ensures that you know the charges against you and can gather your exonerating and mitigating evidence. Due process also provides you with a forum in which to present that evidence and challenge the government’s incriminating evidence. You also have a right to challenge a government taking of your private property and to fair compensation for its market value if the government proves its lawful taking for a public purpose. Retain a qualified lawyer to pursue your due process rights to challenge any government action affecting your life, liberty, and property interests.
Audit: Identify which of the following government actions you have recently faced or are facing, as to which you should have qualified legal representation: (a) denial or revocation of a license or certification; (b) denial or revocation of a permit to operate a business; (c) suspension or expulsion from a public school or program; (d) denial or termination of public benefits; (e) seizure of personal property and effects; (f) taking of real property.
Travel
Law also guarantees you rights to travel interstate and internationally. Your right to move from state to state includes the right to settle in another state with that state’s full rights and privileges equal to long-term residents of the state. States may not generally discriminate among residents in their rights, based on having entered from another state. States may also not restrict interstate commerce. You should be able to sell your business’s goods and services across state lines without undue burden or restriction, making them non-competitive with goods and services produced within the other state. States may regulate dangerous or controversial items like marijuana products, fireworks, weapons, and agricultural items or livestock differently, implicating risks when moving those items from state to state. Your right to travel internationally includes the right to exit and enter the country, although immigration and customs officials may require identification and inspection for military security and other lawful purposes. Retain qualified legal representation if you face interstate or international travel issues threatening your ability to move freely and with equal rights.
Audit: Identify which of the following issues you may face for which you would need qualified legal representation: (a) travel across state lines with items lawful to possess in your state but restricted or banned in the other state; (b) bringing items into your state lawful in the other state but restricted or banned in your state; (c) right to carry a concealed firearm; (d) passport status or other documentation for your international travel; (e) controversial purposes for your international travel related to security or other public concerns; (f) items you wish to take with you out of the country to another country regulating them differently; (g) items you wish to bring into the country from another country, when this country regulates them differently.
Arrest
Law affords you protection from government seizure and arrest. The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments prohibit police or other government actors from stopping you for a brief frisk, other than with reasonable suspicion that you are engaged in criminal conduct. Police must not detain and arrest you without probable cause to believe that you have committed a crime. Law imposes a warrant requirement for arrests of suspects after the commission of a crime. Law continues to provide you with protections after your arrest on suspicion of crime. On arrest and detention, you have the right to remain silent, consult your lawyer, and promptly appear before a judge, usually within 48 hours. The judge must inform you of the charges against you, enter your plea, and schedule a bail hearing to consider your freedom pending resolution of the charges. During incarceration, the Constitution protects prisoners from cruel and unusual punishment, ensuring that those who are incarcerated receive adequate food, drink, exercise, air, and medical care for known serious medical needs. Prisoners also have access to law materials, the courts, and their lawyer to ensure these rights and the integrity of the process that resulted in their incarceration. You have a right to a public trial before a jury of your peers, a right to call witnesses on your behalf, and a right to confront and cross-examine witnesses testifying against you. You also have a privilege against self-incrimination. Retain a qualified criminal defense counsel to advise and represent you in any criminal proceeding.
Audit: Identify any of the following issues that you or your family members face as suspects, arrestees, or prisoners, for which you need qualified legal defense: (a) police requests for investigation interview; (b) police requests to inspect premises for evidence of crime; (c) detention for interrogation; (d) arrest; (e) transport to the police station for booking; (f) arraignment for plea and bail or bond for release; (g) jail or prison conditions affecting health; (h) medical care while incarcerated.
Citizenship
Law also recognizes and values your citizenship. Citizenship depends on your birth within the United States or U.S. territories or possessions, or your birth to a U.S.-citizen parent while meeting other requirements. You may alternatively apply after birth for citizenship through a statutory naturalization process. Naturalization ordinarily requires that you pass an English-language and civics test. Your citizenship and its proper passport documentation can be critical to your ability to return to the United States from foreign countries. Entry after exit is just one of many rights and privileges of citizenship, which include all other constitutional protections for citizens. Citizens have additional rights beyond the rights of non-citizens and undocumented aliens, for example, to vote for public officials, accept certain federal employment, and run for certain public office. Lawful resident aliens who have a documented status to remain in the United States without U.S. citizenship have certain constitutional protections without these additional special citizenship rights. Undocumented aliens who are neither citizens or lawful resident aliens retain some constitutional rights but under federal law lose their opportunity to work lawfully within the United States, among other significant disadvantages. Citizenship rights come with responsibilities to defend the Constitution, defend the country if called upon, serve on juries, pay taxes, obey the law, respect the rights of others, and participate in the democratic process. You may in certain cases have dual citizenship, particularly when you acquire a foreign citizenship automatically rather than by application, or when naturalized as a U.S. citizen while keeping your foreign citizenship if that foreign law allows it. The law allows renunciation of your citizenship before a U.S. consular officer in a foreign country.
Audit: Confirm the following: (a) that you are a U.S. citizen or lawful resident alien within the United States; (b) that you have a current U.S. passport or current visa proving your lawful status; (c) that you have the status and documentation to leave and re-enter the United States without difficulty. Retain a qualified lawyer if you or a family member have citizenship, naturalization, or visa issues.
Aliens
Law can provide substantial protections for you even if you do not have citizenship or other lawful status. Immigrants who enter the United States without lawful documentation gain basic constitutional protections and other legal rights. Undocumented aliens may have limited due process rights, preventing the government from denying life, liberty, or property without notice and hearing. Undocumented aliens may also have limited equal protection rights for access to public education and other services. Undocumented aliens are subject to detention and deportation after hearing but have other opportunities within federal immigration laws to remain in the country. Asylum may be an option for those who enter the country illegally to avoid persecution in their home country due to their race, religion, nationality, social-group membership, or political opinion. Applying for asylum grants temporary status for the year or more that a grant of asylum may take. Aliens granted asylum may after one year apply for permanent residency, on a path to citizenship.
Audit: Identify any of the following issues that you or your family members face, as undocumented aliens: (a) rights to public school or other services; (b) deportation proceedings; (c) foreign persecution; (d) refugee status; (e) asylum application; (f) application for permanent residency. Retain a qualified immigration lawyer for assistance with any of these issues.
Information
Law also helps you get information from the government that may be important to the full exercise of your rights and freedoms. Federal and state Freedom of Information Acts require government agencies to disclose public records on request. The acts exempt records of ongoing police investigations, records having to do with national or local security, and some other sensitive records. The acts also permit the government to charge you reasonable costs for searching and copying the records. Yet your ability to discover information the government collects about you, your family, your business, and the activities of others can be a powerful tool for freedom. You may ensure that information about you is accurate, while challenging and correcting inaccuracies. You may also use public records for your business, security, investing, or other social, political, recreational, and economic activities. The government is a vast repository of public, private, and commercial information. Information acts have proven powerful tools in ensuring continued freedom. Consult a qualified lawyer for help in enforcing information acts.
Audit: Identify any of the following public records in which you may have a personal, political, social, recreational, economic, or other interest: (a) your criminal history; (b) your civil or family court records; (c) your real-estate-tax and assessment records; (d) your building-inspection records; (e) police reports of accidents and other events in which you were involved; (f) records of fire, sewer, power, cable, drain, or other public services and utilities for your home; (g) records and reports involving others in your neighborhood potentially affecting the safety of your family; (h) records of home sales in your neighborhood affecting your property value; (i) records of the proceedings of local public bodies on actions affecting you; (j) records of public officials regulating your property or business; (k) names, addresses, and other contact information for potential customers of your business; (l) maps and photographs of lands; (m) building or facility diagrams.
Key Points
Law guarantees freedom from unreasonable government interference.
Law makes the free exercise of religion the first fundamental right.
The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech and association.
Law grants you privacy protections from public and private acts.
Law ensures due process to challenge government deprivations.
Law guarantees you a right to travel interstate and internationally.
Law grants you significant protections against government arrest.
Your citizenship guarantees you the right to vote and other rights.
Undocumented aliens have basic due process and asylum rights.