Jonah Patel
The United States Constitution has 27 amendments, the first 10 of which are known as the Bill of Rights. One of the most significant amendments with regard to citizenship is the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States and of the State in which they reside. This amendment guarantees that citizens of the United States are afforded certain privileges and immunities, including life, liberty, and property, and that no State can deprive them of these rights without due process. Additionally, the Fourteenth Amendment ensures that citizens have the right to vote regardless of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Number of Amendments to the US Constitution | 27 |
| First 10 Amendments | Known as the Bill of Rights |
| Date of Ratification of the Bill of Rights | December 15, 1791 |
| Fourteenth Amendment | Defines citizens as "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" |
| Fourteenth Amendment Exclusions | Persons born in the US but not "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" |
| Amendment XII | Passed by Congress December 9, 1803, ratified June 15, 1804 |
| Amendment XVI | Passed by Congress July 2, 1909, ratified February 3, 1913 |
| Amendment XVII | Passed by Congress May 13, 1912, ratified April 8, 1913 |
| Amendment XXII | Passed by Congress March 21, 1947, ratified February 27, 1951 |
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What You'll Learn
The Fourteenth Amendment
> 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The most commonly used and litigated phrase in the amendment is "equal protection of the laws," which has been central to a wide variety of landmark cases, including Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination), Roe v. Wade (reproductive rights), and Bush v. Gore (election recounts).
> When the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
This section ensures that representation is reduced if citizens are denied the right to vote, except in cases of participation in rebellion or other crimes.
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Birthright citizenship
The United States Constitution has 27 amendments, the first 10 of which are known as the Bill of Rights. One of these amendments, the Fourteenth Amendment, guarantees birthright citizenship. This principle, also known as jus soli, or "right of the soil", automatically grants citizenship to individuals born in the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status.
The Fourteenth 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 provision was confirmed in the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which clarified that children born in the US to immigrant parents are citizens.
There are two forms of birthright citizenship: ancestry-based citizenship and birthplace-based citizenship. Ancestry-based citizenship, or jus sanguinis, grants citizenship to children born abroad to US citizens, provided certain statutory requirements are met. Birthplace-based citizenship, on the other hand, grants citizenship based solely on being born on US territory. This form of citizenship has been a part of US law for over a century, but it has come under threat in recent years due to anti-immigrant sentiment.
President Donald Trump, for example, issued an executive order on his first day in office aimed at ending birthright citizenship for babies of undocumented immigrants and individuals with temporary status in the US. This order, known as Executive Order 14156, was an attempt to restrict birthplace-based citizenship. However, Trump's efforts have not fared well in court, and the Supreme Court has not supported his attempts to end birthright citizenship.
The Supreme Court's decisions can have a significant impact on the interpretation of rights over generations. In the context of birthright citizenship, the Court's rulings have the potential to affect the citizenship status of thousands of US-born children. While the Court has not directly answered the question of whether existing injunctions related to birthright citizenship are sufficient, it has left the door open for the government to partially enforce Trump's executive order, potentially denying constitutional rights to those children.
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Voting rights
The US Constitution has 27 amendments, the first 10 of which are known as the Bill of Rights. Several of these amendments, as well as federal laws, protect the voting rights of US citizens.
The Fourteenth Amendment states that all male citizens of the United States, aged 21 or above, have the right to vote in elections for the President, Vice-President, Representatives in Congress, and state officials. It also specifies that any male citizen denied this right will lead to a reduction in the basis of representation for the state.
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the voting age for all elections to 18 years.
The Civil Rights Act of 1870 created some of the earliest federal protections against discrimination in voting. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 further strengthened these protections by prohibiting voter discrimination based on race, colour, or membership in a language minority group. It mandated that certain places provide election materials in languages other than English. This Act also placed restrictions on states with a history of voter discrimination, requiring them to obtain federal approval before enacting voter restrictions.
Federal laws have been passed over the years to protect Americans' right to vote and make it easier for citizens to exercise that right. Most states require some form of identification before allowing citizens to vote.
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Due process of law
The concept of "due process of law" primarily refers to the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which states that no one shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law" by the federal government. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, includes the same guarantee, extending this obligation to the states. This clause, often referred to as the Due Process Clause, ensures that all levels of the American government must operate within the law and provide fair procedures.
The Due Process Clause has been interpreted to include both “procedural due process” and "substantive due process". Procedural due process refers to the steps that the government must follow before depriving an individual of life, liberty, or property. This often includes the right to a jury trial, where the jury determines the facts and a judge enforces the law.
Substantive due process, on the other hand, deals with the evaluation of whether a law can be applied by states, regardless of the procedure followed. It has generally focused on specific subject areas, such as liberty of contract or privacy, and has been used to restrict significant portions of state legislatures. While the extent of the rights protected by substantive due process may be controversial, it forms the basis for much of modern constitutional case law.
The interpretation of "life, liberty, and property" has evolved over time. In the 1970 case of Goldberg v. Kelly, the Supreme Court ruled that some governmental benefits, such as welfare benefits, amount to "property" with due process protections. When evaluating procedures for depriving someone of a "new property" right, courts consider the nature of the property right, the adequacy of the procedure, and the burdens that other procedures would impose on the state.
The Due Process Clause has been a significant restraint on the power of the states, and has been invoked in numerous cases where citizens claim they have been deprived of their rights without due process.
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Equal protection of the laws
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868, addresses many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens. The most commonly used phrase in the amendment is "equal protection of the laws", which has been central to a wide variety of landmark cases, including Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination), Roe v. Wade (reproductive rights), Bush v. Gore (election recounts), Reed v. Reed (gender discrimination), and University of California v. Bakke (racial quotas in education).
The Equal Protection Clause, which is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, states that "nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This clause mandates that individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law. It was intended to validate the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed that all citizens would have the right to equal protection under the law.
The Fourteenth Amendment marked a significant shift in American constitutionalism, imposing far more constitutional restrictions on the states than had been in place before the Civil War. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been hotly debated, and it inspired the well-known phrase "Equal Justice Under Law". In the period from 1868 to 1912, the Supreme Court interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment in 312 cases dealing with the rights of corporations, but only 28 cases dealing with the rights of African Americans. Justice John Marshall Harlan, in his dissent in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, wrote that "our constitution is colour-blind", a philosophy that would gain wider acceptance after World War II.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Equal Protection Clause was used to strike down numerous statutes applying to corporations. Since the New Deal, however, such invalidations have been rare. In more recent times, the Equal Protection Clause has been used in cases relating to same-sex marriage. In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the Supreme Court held that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, requiring all states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.
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