Skip to content
CivicsWise
Menu

Question 9 of 100 · 2008 civics test

What are two rights in the Declaration of Independence?

From the 100-question list, the version for applications filed before October 20, 2025.

Accepted answers

  • life
  • liberty
  • pursuit of happiness

Any one of these is accepted, unless the question asks for more than one.

Why this is the answer

The Declaration names three rights it calls natural and unalienable, meaning no government granted them and none may take them away: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Naming any two of them answers the question. The idea behind the list is the argument of the whole document. If people are born with these rights, a government exists to protect them, and because the people hand power to that government voluntarily they can take it back. The British government was not protecting the colonists' rights, so the colonies took their power back and separated. Memory hook: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and they came before the government did.