What does the 14th Amendment actually say?

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.

What is the 14th Amendment in simple terms?

Passed by the Senate on June 8, 1866, and ratified two years later, on July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States," including formerly enslaved people, and provided all citizens with “equal protection under the laws,” extending the provisions of ...

What is the message of the 14th Amendment?

The Fourteenth Amendment forbids the states from depriving any person of “life, liberty, or property, without due process of law” and from denying anyone equal protection under the law.

What is the most important phrase in the 14th Amendment?

The most commonly used -- and frequently litigated -- phrase in the amendment is "equal protection of the laws", which figures prominently in 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 ...

What are the 4 main points of the 14th Amendment?

14th Amendment - Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt | Constitution Center.

The 14th Amendment: Understanding its crucial legal impact

Why is the 14th Amendment so powerful?

The principle that everyone born in this country is a United States citizen is one of the sacred building blocks of our democracy. Enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, it reflects America's fundamental commitment to fairness.

What rights are protected by 14th Amendment?

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.

What are the 3 main clauses of the 14th Amendment?

The amendment's first section includes several clauses: the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause.

What are the two important clauses found in the Fourteenth Amendment?

The Due Process Clause declared that states may not deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law." The Equal Protection Clause said that a state may not deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Which group of people was most directly affected by the 14th Amendment?

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution is one of the nation's most important laws relating to citizenship and civil rights. Ratified in 1868, three years after the abolishment of slavery, the 14th Amendment served a revolutionary purpose — to define African Americans as equal citizens under the law.

What was the real impact of the 14th Amendment?

Introduced to address the racial discrimination endured by Black people who were recently emancipated from slavery, the amendment confirmed the rights and privileges of citizenship and, for the first time, guaranteed all Americans equal protection under the laws.

How do you explain the 14th Amendment to a child?

Lesson Summary

It says that anyone born in the United States is a citizen and that all states must give citizens the same rights guaranteed by the federal government in the Bill of Rights. The 14th Amendment also says that all citizens have the right to due process and equal protection under the law in all states.

How did the 14th Amendment help slaves?

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.

What did the 14th Amendment do for African American?

The 14th Amendment revoked the Black Codes by declaring that states could not pass laws that denied citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms. No person could be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process (fair treatment by the judicial system), and the law was to be equally applied to everyone.

What are the 2 things that the 14th Amendment says states Cannot deny to citizens?

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.

What does Section 5 of the 14th Amendment mean?

Section Five of the Fourteenth Amendment vests Congress with the authority to adopt “appropriate” legislation to enforce the other parts of the Amendment—most notably, the provisions of Section One.

What violated the 14th Amendment?

1954High Court Strikes Down School Segregation

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns its 1896 ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional and rules that segregation is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.

What is an example of violation of the 14th Amendment?

A violation would occur, for example, if a state prohibited an individual from entering into an employment contract because he or she was a member of a particular race. The clause is not intended to provide equality among individuals or classes but only equal application of the law.

How does death penalty violate 14th Amendment?

Its imposition is often arbitrary, and always irrevocable – forever depriving an individual of the opportunity to benefit from new evidence or new laws that might warrant the reversal of a conviction, or the setting aside of a death sentence. The death penalty violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection.

Who is and isn't protected under the 14th Amendment?

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and ...

Are there any exceptions to the 14th Amendment?

The Court found that these few discrete exceptions to U.S. born citizenship are rooted in the Common Law, dating back centuries. The Common Law provided that all children born in the territory of the sovereign were citizens except for those born to foreign diplomats or hostile occupying forces.

How does racial profiling violate the 14th Amendment?

Profiling violates the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. The Fourth Amendment protects all persons against unreasonable searches and seizures without probable cause. Just because a person is of a race that may statistically have a higher crime rate is not, by itself, probable cause.

Why is the 14th Amendment controversial today?

Why was the Fourteenth Amendment controversial in women's rights circles? This is because, for the first time, the proposed Amendment added the word "male" into the US Constitution.

Why did the 14th Amendment fail?

Due to judicial and executive inaction, the amendment was not interpreted as anything more than a reiteration of the Thirteenth Amendment's declaration of emancipation for slaves, and it did not guarantee African Americans any civil rights as citizens of the United States.

What is a real life example of the 14th Amendment?

the United States Supreme Court ruled that marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, and therefore must be afforded to same-sex couples. The ruling ensured that statewide bans on same-sex marriage could not be held up as constitutional.