Founding Principles Chapter 13: Civil Liberties from Bowdoin College on Vimeo.

Ever since the ten constitutional amendments known as the Bill of Rights came along in 1791, people have been arguing about them, writes Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government Andrew Rudalevige.

Rudalevige’s latest contribution to the Monkey Cage, a political science blog published by The Washington Post, examines the issues of citizens’ rights and freedoms under the Constitution. How are those rights defined? He asks. “What makes a search ‘unreasonable,’ and prohibited under the Fourth Amendment? What constitutes ‘cruel and unusual punishments’? What is ‘due process,’ anyway?”

Over the summer The Monkey Cage has been regularly publishing an episode per week of Founding Principles, a series of short videos presented by Rudalevige explaining how American government works. This chapter—the thirteenth of fifteen—is titled “Civil Liberties.”