civil right

n

1. Any governmentally recognized or constitutionally or legally protected economic, personal, or political liberty or right of an individual.
2. In the United States, any of the liberties and rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Nineteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and legislation designed to protect or encourage the exercise of those rights.
3. Freedom from discrimination, especially that based on race. See also civil liberty, liberty, and right.