Civil Liberties in America: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary World Issues)

A concise, authoritative guide to civil liberties issues in American society, from freedom of speech and religious liberty to due process, equal protection, and privacy.

Written for a general audience, this work clearly defines civil liberties and explains their legal basis in the Bill of Rights, state constitutions, legal statutes, and administrative regulations. It reviews the subject's history from 1917 to the present, and covers the full range of civil liberties issues: the First Amendment, due process, equal protection, and privacy.

In addition to extensive material on past controversies such as the Scopes trial and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the book discusses important contemporary issues such as censorship on the Internet and drug testing. The coverage also examines conflicting civil liberties issues such as hate speech, which pits one person's freedom of expression against another's right to equal protection. The book contains extensive bibliographic references to books and articles and a long list of website links to organizations active on all sides of today's civil liberties controversies.

Samuel Walker is professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha, Omaha, NE.