civil right

civil right definition - legal

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.

Webster's New World Law Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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