Civil Liberties and Civil Rights

Civil liberties are individual freedoms that the government cannot take away. Civil rights are the rights of equality before the law.

The Fourteenth Amendment is important to civil rights because it includes three clauses that established much of the constitutional framework for civil rights: the privileges and immunities clause, the due process clause, and the equal protection clause, all of which apply to state governments.

Incorporation is a legal term; it means that states are bound by the Bill of Rights.