A civil libertarian is one who is actively concerned with the protection of individual civil liberties and civil rights. Civil libertarians do not necessarily agree with fiscal libertarianism.

Civil libertarians might, for example, argue that the fundamental civil right to self determination means that pornography and drug use should be legal, but they might have no objection to taxation and civil ordinances. Both conservative and liberal ideologies have civil libertarian adherents. The most prominent civil libertarian organization in the United States is probably the American Civil Liberties Union.