Civil Right

Civil rights are those personal and property rights recognized by governments and guaranteed by constitutions and laws. Although these rights were once conceived of as civil liberties, as limits placed on the government on behalf of individual liberty, government is no longer the sole concern of civil rights policy. Recent legislation and court decisions have extended the zone of civil rights to include protection from arbitrary or discriminatory treatment by groups or individuals. Thus, in …

…and Voltaire. In America, Thomas Jefferson expanded the English and American views of civil rights. He emphasized the primacy of human happiness, by which he meant the opportunity of autonomous individuals to develop them to the fullest. He also advanced the concept of religious freedom and church-state separation as a key element of civil rights. Jefferson's thinking was embodied in the Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Statute of Religious Liberty (1785) of the state of Virginia.