Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868. It addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law. It was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.

About Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in brief

The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868. It addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law. It was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War. The amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, says Julian Zelizer. The second section’s reference to rebellion has been invoked as a constitutional ground for felony disenfranchisement, he says. The fourth section was held, in Perry v. United States, to prohibit a current Congress from abrogating a contract of debt incurred by a prior Congress, Zelizer says. The fifth section gives Congress the power to enforce the amendment’s provisions by \”appropriate legislation;\” he says, but this power may not be used to contradict a Supreme Court decision interpreting the amendment. Zelizer: The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by the states of the defeated Confederacy, which were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation in aid of rebellion or aid of emancipation, or claim for the loss or loss of services or pensions, says Zelizer, who is a former member of the House of Representatives and served as a senator from New York from 1864-1870. He says Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability, but only if the public-spirited Congress votes to do so in a majority vote, as it did in the case of the State of New York in 1874-1875.

The amendment’s first section includes several clauses: the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court has ruled this clause makes most of the Bill of Rights as applicable to the states as it is to the federal government, as well as to recognize substantive and procedural requirements that state laws must satisfy. It is the basis for landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Bush v. Gore, and Obergefell v. Hodges regarding same-sex marriage, he writes. The first section of the amendment is seldom litigated, but the second, third, and fourth sections of the Amendment are seldom litigating. But the second section has been the basis of many decisions rejecting irrational or unnecessary discrimination against people belonging to various groups, he adds. The third section requires each state to provide equal protection to all people, including all non-citizens, within its jurisdiction. It also requires the number of citizens to be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. It says no person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, under any State, or under any state, having previously taken an oath of office.

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