Civil Liberties
Civil liberties are central not only to our government, as outlined in the Bill of Rights in the US Constitution, but to what it means to be an American. Our freedoms of speech, press, religion, and assembly allow us to think for ourselves, criticize the government, and practice our faiths. We also have the right to due process and protection from unreasonable search and seizure. These rights protect us from unreasonable interference and imposition by our governments and help define what freedom means in the United States.
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Freedom of the PressNational
Trend% of countries the US outperformsIntl. Rank
Trend66%Specific Measure:
Number of press freedom violations, including assaults and arrests of reporters, damage to their equipment, and subpoenas/legal orders for anonymous sources and restricting coverage.
- Mixed: the trends go in strongly opposite directions during different periods.
- Unclear: too few years of data to establish a trend.
Measures in green indicate an improving national trend or that we are outperforming at least 80% of countries.
Measures in red indicate a declining national trend or that we are outperforming less than 50% of countries.
Measures in yellow indicate stable trends or that we are outperforming 50-79% of countries.
Summary of Results
The degree to which our civil liberties are being protected is difficult to measure. For this reason, we include only one measure, focused on freedom of the press. We are above most high-income countries on this measure, though many countries are above us and we are falling behind over time.
Related Topics
Civil liberties are clearly aligned with the Citizenship and Democracy topic. Freedom of the press is necessary for a well-informed citizenry and as a venue for debate and public discussion.
Other Measures Considered
We note, again, that this is a particularly difficult topic to measure. We looked for measures of freedom of speech, religion, and assembly, but we could not find any that seemed credible and consistently measured over time.