Article 3: Bill of Rights

• Bill of rights may be defined as a declaration and enumeration of a person's rights and privileges which the constitution designed to protect against violations by the government or by an individual or groups of individuals.
• Examples of rights

  • Right to receive a minimum wage
  • Right to adopt a child by an unrelated person
• Classes of Rights

  • Natural Rights
  • Constitutional Rights
  • Statutory Rights
• Natural Rights


  Rights possessed by every citizen without being granted by the state, given to man by God as human beings created in His image
• Constitutional Rights


  Rights which are conferred by the constitution
• Statutory Rights


  Rights provided by laws made by the law-making body and may be abolished by the same body
• Classification of Constitutional Rights

  • Political Rights
  • Civil Rights
  • Social and Economic Rights
  • Rights of the Accused
• Political Rights


  Gives the citizen the power to participate directly or indirectly
• Civil Rights

  Rights enforced by law, including the rights to due process and equal protection of the law
• Social and Economic Rights

  Rights intended to ensure the well-being and economic security of the individual
• Rights of the Accused

  Civil rights intended for the protection of the person accused of any crime, like the right to presumption of innocence
• Due Process of Law

  A law or policy that hears before it condemns, a principle of fair play
• Aspects of Due Process of Law

  • Procedural Due Process
  • Substantive Due Process
• Procedural Due Process

  Refers to the method or manner by which the law is enforced
• Substantive Due Process

  Requires that the law itself, not merely the procedure, is fair, reasonable, and just
• Procedural Due Process Requisites

  • An impartial court
  • Jurisdiction lawfully acquired
  • Opportunity to be heard
  • Judgment after lawful hearing
• Administrative Proceedings may dispense with notice and hearing for public need or practical reasons
• Life


  Means something more than mere animal existence
• Liberty

  Denotes freedom from physical restraint and the rights of man to use his faculties
• Property

  May refer to the thing itself or the right over a thing
• Equal protection of the law


  Signifies that all persons subject to legislation should be treated alike under like circumstances
• Search warrant

  An order issued in the name of the people, signed by a judge, commanding a peace officer to search for certain personal property
• Warrant of arrest


  To arrest a person designated and take him into custody for an offense
• Scope of the Protection

  • Persons
  • Houses
  • Papers and effects
• The protection applies to everybody
• The protection extends to various types of buildings but not to open spaces and fields
• Papers and effects include sealed letters and packages in the mail
• Requisites for valid search warrant or warrant of arrest

  • Issued upon probable cause
  • Determined personally by the judge
  • Examination of complainant and witnesses
  • Particularly describe the place and person or things
• Probable cause


  Facts and circumstances sufficient to induce a cautious man to rely upon them
• When search and seizure may be made without warrant

  • Consent and waiver
  • Incident to lawful arrest
  • Contraband or forfeited goods
  • Plain view
  • Inspection and regulation
  • Routinary searches at borders
• When Arrest may be made without warrant

  • In presence of offense
  • When an offense has just been committed
  • When the person is an escaped prisoner
• Right of privacy


  Right to be left alone
• Freedom of speech, expression, and of the press

  Right to freely utter and publish without previous restraint
• Scope of terms of Speech, expression, and press

  • Speech and expression
  • Press
• Press covers every sort of publication, including radio and television
• Freedom of expression limitations

  • Subject to regulation by the State
  • Subject to liability when abused
• Liabilities when freedom of expression is abused

  • Slander or Libel
  • Lewd and obscene speech
  • Fighting words
  • Seditious speeches
• Right of Assembly


  The right to meet peaceably for consultation on public affairs
• Right of Petition

  The right to apply for redress of grievances without fear of penalty
• Religious Freedom


  The right to worship God and entertain religious views without interference