POLI-330N Week 6 Assignment: Part I: How the Courts Address or Respect Our Rights as Citizens – Outline: Roe vs Wade

The US has come a long way in amending and protecting civil rights and civil liberties. The former implies legal rights which offer protection to an individual from any form of discrimination, such as racial discrimination, while the later implies freedoms that are guaranteed to an individual by the constitution, for instance, freedom of speech (Greenberg & Page, 2018). Historical cases have helped in the amendment of civil rights and civil liberties that are being enjoyed by Americans today. One of such cases is Gitlow v. New York (1925) which was associated with freedom of speech. The Gitlow v. New York case involved Benjamin Gitlow, who was a journalist, and a member of the Socialist Party of America (Ballotpedia, n.d). In July 1919, Gitlow published the ‘Left-Wing Manifesto’ and made 16,000 copies of the document which called for revolution through revolutionary mass action and strikes. He was charged and convicted of anarchy, which was against New York’s criminal anarchy law. He appealed in New York Courts of Appeal which upheld his conviction. Gitlow later appealed in the United States Supreme Court which also upheld his conviction.