California Civil Rights Lawyers
Fighting to Protect Your Guaranteed Rights

Every United States citizen is guaranteed certain rights and freedoms by the Constitution. In addition, California has its own Constitution that in many ways provides more rights and protections than the document that serves as the foundation of the American governmental system. Unfortunately, this does not prevent rights from being violated. When this situation arises, you need the help of experienced California civil rights lawyers. Below you'll find information regarding the general bases of protection afforded by the Constitution, the types of claims that can arise based on these protections and finally how you should proceed if you have been legally wronged in this regard and need the help of California civil rights lawyers.

Protections Afforded by the Constitution

There are many rights and privileges provided for in the Constitution of both the United States and California. These protections are part of these documents because of the public interest geared towards clearly defining conduct that is always wrong and that should be seen as illegal in almost any situation.

These protections include groups of people who are known as being part of a protected class. Protected classes are those types of people who may have been treated wrongly in the past and who the legislatures have deemed need overt protection in order to prevent continued mistreatment.

Generally, these classes include people of certain races, countries of origin, genders, religious beliefs, sexual orientations and those who are physically or mentally challenged. Both the United States and California Constitutions clearly set out those who are members of protected classes, and mistreating those people because of their membership in these classes gives rise to immediate legal action.

Common Types of Civil Rights Claims

California civil rights lawyers tend to get involved with helping people who have been wronged based on the following types of legal claims:

• Gender discrimination - Civil rights cases can involve situations where someone is discriminated against because of his or her gender. These types of cases tend to arise most often in employment settings, such as when someone is passed over for a promotion or even terminated because of his or her gender.


• Racial discrimination - Clearly, civil rights cases based on race are all too common. Racial discrimination can occur in almost any setting, including the refusal to treat or deal with someone because of race, police conduct that's motivated by race or employment decisions made on this basis.


• Discrimination based on sexual orientation - The issue of homosexual rights is always controversial, and there have been efforts to restrict the protections afforded to this class. Regardless, it is still illegal to discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Clearly, there are additional instances of civil rights violations, but those above represent a few examples of common situations. If you or someone you love has been harmed in this manner, you need to contact the California civil rights lawyers at the San Diego law firm of Mitchell | Gilleon today to schedule a free initial consultation.