Civil libertarians believe most specifically that?

Answer 1

civil libertarians believe most specifically that goverment should regulate as few aspects of our lives as are absolutely necessary.

what should governments do?

Answer 2

They believe in themselves, in the power of the truth, honesty.

Civil libertarians are different than Libertarians. Libertarians are people who believe in the Libertarian political philosophy, while Civil Libertarians are people who are concerned with Civil Liberties inside a society, regardless of what kind of government is operating.

Generally speaking, Civil Liberties include most the rights laid out in the U.S. Constitution (particularly the Bill of Rights), the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and several other key historical documents. They describe a basic set of rights that all people in any society should possess; a short list of rights typically included are:

• Free Speech - the right to freely criticize government without legal repercussions
• Right of Assembly - the ability for citizens to gather together for whatever purpose they desire, so long as they remain peaceable. This is sometimes also called the Freedom of Association, the ability of people to talk to whomever they chose.
• Fair Trials - there are a variety of rights here, but they all boil down to making sure that a person receives a fair hearing in front of an impartial panel, and has the ability to present an effective defense against any charges laid against them. Common rights here are Trial by Jury, Right to Face Accusers, Right of Non-self-incrimination, Right to Inspect All Evidence, Right to Dispute Evidence, and Right to a Speedy Trial.It also includes rights to be speedily charged with a crime, and not held in detention for more than a limited period of time before being charged.
• Freedom of Religious Practice - the ability to follow any religion a person chooses within their own private area, without legal restriction
• Non-Discrimination - the freedom from legal discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, cultural background, language, national origin, or several other characteristics which are considered "innate" and not changeable. That is, no one should be discriminated against because of some characteristic they were born with (or into).
• No Slavery or Involuntary Servitude - forced work for no pay is wrong, as is allowing humans to be treated as property. Criminals may be imprisoned, but forcing them to work is wrong.
• Punishments should be Humane - punishments for civil infractions should be proportionate to the crime's impact, and not excessive. Punishments which are cruel or inflict permanent physical damage are wrong.

There are many others, but the basis of being a Civil Libertarian is that all persons in a society should be treated equally in the eyes of the law, that they should receive fair and balanced punishments if convicted of any crime, and that governments should not interfere with a persons' actions unless those actions harm society. The latter is hard to define, but, in general, it means that governments should not make actions illegal unless they directly harm other members of society; generally speaking, people should be free to act as they wish, so long as their actions do not hurt other people's abilities to do the same.

One of the key things that being a Civil Libertarian involves is the defense of principle over individual situations. That is, a Civil Libertarian will often find themselves defending unpopular or even evil people, because, while their actions or speech may be unpopular, they nonetheless should be allowed to do/say what they wish, because restricting that right for unpopular things infringes on the above principles. Thus, you will commonly see Civil Libertarians defend people accused of Hate Speech (because, so long as they're not actively attempting to incite someone to violence, the content of speech should NOT be up for approval by the government) and many similar unsavory characters.