civil liberty

noun

plural civil liberties

: freedom from arbitrary interference in one's speech or actions by other individuals or by the government especially as constitutionally guaranteed (as by the U.S. Bill of Rights)

—usually plural

Examples of civil liberties include freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, the right to privacy, and the right to due process of law.

—Ramon Martin

compare civil rights

civil libertarian noun

plural civil libertarians

Civil libertarians contend that the heightened scrutiny has discouraged illegal immigrants from seeking marriage, … a fundamental right protected under the Constitution.

—Randy Kennedy

civil libertarian adjective

… continued divisions within the GOP on civil libertarian issues.

—Ian Duncan and Lisa Mascaro

Examples of civil liberty in a Sentence

Freedom of speech is a civil liberty.

Recent Examples on the Web

Government ministers and health campaigners have largely praised the plans, while some lawmakers have criticized its impact on civil liberties. —Katherine Hignett, Forbes, 28 Nov. 2024

Albanese’s party, which does not control the Senate, won crucial support from the opposition conservatives for the bill, but has failed to win over the left-leaning Greens and some far-right lawmakers on civil liberties and privacy grounds. —Reuters, NBC News, 27 Nov. 2024

The government, for its part, lagged badly in providing these emergency services but wasted no time pushing through its broader program of consolidating power by eroding civil liberties and installing political loyalists in less-visible professional and technical levels of government. —Dahlia Scheindlin, Foreign Affairs, 27 Sep. 2024

This does not excuse the way the government acted, the PATRIOT Act’s disregard for civil liberties, or the numbers of hate crimes against Muslim Americans (or the hell that those Americans surely encountered making their way through an airport). —Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 10 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1640, in the meaning defined above

Legal Definition

civil liberty

noun

: freedom from arbitrary interference in one's pursuits (as in expressing thoughts, practicing a religion, or pursuing a living) by individuals or especially by the government and especially as constitutionally guaranteed

—usually used in pl. see also civil right