Quote:How do you decide which laws involve civil liberties and which do not?


Don't we already have a Bill of Rights and a Supreme Court to decide this? The Bill of Rights sets out our civil liberties, and any law we pass cannot cancel any civil liberties enumerated in the Bill of Rights.


As far as your point about slavery, I think if you took a vote in Alabama 200 years ago, you would easily get 90% in favor of slavery.

 

I would strongly disagree with you about Alabama reaching a 90% vote on slavery.  Maybe 50 or 60%, but 90% would have been unlikely.  Only less than 20% of the population owned slaves in Alabama.  The whole point is moot anyways because it would have been impossible to get a 90% vote nationally.  

 

As far as deciding which law involves civil liberties, its pretty simple to figure out.  If there is an objection raised to whether something is a civil liberty or not, then that's what the judicial system is there for - to decide.  I don't see anywhere in the Bill of Rights describing its stance on abortion, drugs, etc.

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