Omar Bennett
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people, defining US citizenship and protecting various civil rights from being denied by state law or state action. The amendment's most commonly used and frequently litigated phrase is equal protection of the laws, which has been central to landmark cases concerning racial discrimination, reproductive rights, election recounts, gender discrimination, and racial quotas in education.
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What You'll Learn
- Extended liberties and rights to formerly enslaved people
- Overruled Dred Scott decision that African Americans could not become citizens
- Prevented enforcement of southern states' Black Codes
- Granted Congress power to enforce the amendment
- Applied the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause to state governments
Extended liberties and rights to formerly enslaved people
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people.
Before the 14th Amendment, the Supreme Court held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that the Bill of Rights only restrained the federal government. The 14th Amendment changed this by nationalizing the Bill of Rights and making it binding on the states. This was intended to protect the rights of all citizens, including those who had been previously enslaved.
A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people. This overruled the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which held that African Americans could not become citizens.
The 14th Amendment also included the equal protection of the laws clause, which has been used in landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination) and Roe v. Wade (reproductive rights). This clause was written to constitutionalize the anti-discrimination principles of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and prevent the enforcement of southern states' Black Codes.
The amendment also granted Congress the power to enforce its provisions, leading to the passage of other landmark legislation in the 20th century, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
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Overruled Dred Scott decision that African Americans could not become citizens
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution addresses citizenship and the rights of citizens. It states that:
> All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
This Citizenship Clause overruled the Dred Scott decision, which stated that African Americans could not become citizens.
Dred Scott was an enslaved Black man who, in 1846, sued for his freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court. He claimed that he was free because he had lived in the free territory of Wisconsin, where slavery was prohibited. The lower courts ruled in his favour, but the case eventually reached the US Supreme Court, which ruled that Scott would remain a slave. The Supreme Court stated that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and therefore could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts. Chief Justice Roger Taney declared that black people, whether free or slave, could never become US citizens and had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect".
The Dred Scott decision was widely criticised and it provoked a civil war. The 13th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution, ratified in 1868, overturned the decision by granting citizenship to all those born in the United States, regardless of race. The 14th Amendment also prevented states from creating laws that abridged the privileges or immunities of US citizens.
Despite the 14th Amendment, Southern states continued to pass discriminatory laws restricting the rights of African Americans. Supreme Court rulings, such as the 1876 Cruikshank ruling, further undermined the civil rights protections of the Amendment by ruling that it only applied to actions taken by states, not individuals.
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Prevented enforcement of southern states' Black Codes
The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, ratified in 1868, was a response to issues affecting freed slaves following the Civil War. It addressed citizenship rights and equal protection under the law at all levels of government. The amendment was intended to prevent the enforcement of the southern states' Black Codes, which were laws passed after the abolishment of slavery in 1865 that restricted the civil rights of newly freed African Americans and forced them to work for their former enslavers.
The 14th Amendment established the principle of birthright citizenship, meaning that anyone born in the US is automatically a citizen. This clause did not apply to Native Americans, who were only legally declared US citizens in 1924. Under the 14th Amendment, African Americans could legally claim the same constitutional rights as all other American citizens. The amendment specifically prohibited states from making or enforcing any law that would abridge the privileges or immunities of US citizens, deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process, or deny any person within its jurisdiction equal protection under the law.
The southern states, led by the same white men who had passed the Black Codes, largely refused to ratify the 14th Amendment. They did not want to accept African Americans as equal citizens and continued to violently oppose Black civil rights. Despite the amendment, African Americans faced resistance, violence, and retaliation when attempting to exercise their rights and freedoms. The Supreme Court and the President also failed to enforce the de jure equality of African Americans outlined in the amendment, rendering the changes to the Constitution ineffective in practice.
To address the lack of enforcement of the 14th Amendment, Congress passed the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871. These laws invoked the power of the federal government under the 14th Amendment to intervene when states failed to protect the rights of citizens. The Enforcement Acts specifically targeted the Ku Klux Klan for conspiring to prevent Black men from voting. In addition, civil rights advocates called for new federal legislation to outlaw racial discrimination in public places, further expanding on the 14th Amendment's promises of equal rights and protection under the law.
The 14th Amendment's impact on preventing the enforcement of the southern states' Black Codes was limited by the resistance from state governments and the failure of the Supreme Court and the President to fully uphold and enforce the amendment's provisions. However, it did provide a legal basis for challenging discriminatory laws and expanding civil rights for African Americans in the years to come.
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Granted Congress power to enforce the amendment
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by the Senate on June 8, 1866, and ratified two years later, on July 9, 1868, brought about several significant changes. One of the most important aspects of the amendment was that it granted Congress the power to enforce its provisions through appropriate legislation. This marked a pivotal shift in the balance of power and set a precedent for future landmark legislation in the 20th century.
The enforcement power granted to Congress under the Fourteenth Amendment had far-reaching implications. Firstly, it empowered Congress to address any violations of citizens' rights by state governments. This included the ability to punish states that infringed upon citizens' right to vote by proportionally reducing their representation in Congress. This provision was particularly aimed at Southern states that had a history of discriminatory practices, such as the Black Codes, which the Fourteenth Amendment sought to counter.
The amendment also gave Congress the authority to prevent former Confederate states from repaying war debts and compensating former slave owners for emancipation. This provision ensured that the financial burden of the Civil War would not be shouldered by the federal government, nor would it reward those who had supported slavery.
Furthermore, the Fourteenth Amendment's enforcement clause played a crucial role in extending the protections of the Bill of Rights to the states. Prior to this amendment, the Supreme Court had held in Barron v. Baltimore (1833) that the Bill of Rights only restrained the federal government. However, with the enforcement power granted to Congress, the Fourteenth Amendment effectively applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments as well, ensuring that citizens' rights were safeguarded at both the federal and state levels.
The enforcement power granted to Congress under the Fourteenth Amendment was a critical tool in upholding the rights and protections enshrined within it. It allowed Congress to take proactive measures to address violations of citizens' rights, hold states accountable for their actions, and ensure that the principles of equality and justice were upheld across the nation. This provision significantly strengthened the Fourteenth Amendment's impact and contributed to its enduring legacy in shaping the legal landscape of the United States.
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Applied the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause to state governments
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution addresses citizenship and the rights of citizens. Section 1 of the amendment formally defines US citizenship and protects civil rights from being denied or abridged by state law or state action.
The Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause applies to the federal government, while the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause applies to state governments. The Fourteenth Amendment explicitly applies the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause to state governments under the Due Process Clause.
The Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment limits the power of eminent domain by requiring "just compensation" if private property is taken for public use. The Takings Clause upholds the principle that the government should not single out individuals to bear excessive burdens, even in support of an important public good. "Just compensation" provides a means of removing any special burden. The government does not need to compensate owners when requiring them to take reasonable steps to avoid harmful activities, such as pollution.
The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause to provide two main protections: procedural due process and substantive due process. Procedural due process requires government officials to follow fair procedures before depriving a person of life, liberty, or property. Substantive due process protects certain fundamental rights from government interference.
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Frequently asked questions
The 14th Amendment, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, addresses citizenship and the rights of citizens in the United States.
The 14th Amendment states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." This granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
The amendment includes the "equal protection of the laws" clause, which states that no state shall deprive any person of "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." It also includes the "due process clause", which applies the Fifth Amendment's protections to state governments.
The 14th Amendment was passed following the Civil War as part of Reconstruction efforts to guarantee equal civil and legal rights to Black citizens. It was intended to nationalize the Bill of Rights by making it binding upon the states.
The 14th Amendment granted Congress the power to enforce the amendment, leading to the passage of landmark legislation in the 20th century, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
