rights of the accused to receive a fair trial. No rights are absolute - and there is
much more to establishing a right than merely claiming it.

Some of the issues that have become especially controversial in the late twentieth
century are commonly understood to be problems involving rights - and there are
many intense and ongoing debates about the status of these rights in the American
constitutional system. The debates involve such topics as freedom of expression;

possession of firearms; states* rights within the federal system; (be states of women;

the status of racial and ethnic minorities; freedoms associated with sexuality;

privacy; health care; old age pensions; property; and many others. To Focus our
discussions, we'll concentrate on two issues of rights that are prototypes for many
others: religious freedom and racial equality.

The First Amendment says:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.

Religious conscience, and the fear of religious persecution, were central to the

framers' thinking about human rights and civil rights. However, issues concerning

race relations have occasioned far more social conflict in the U. S. Africans were       .e ^

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