The Fourteenth Amendment: Due Process and Equal Protection

In 1866, in an effort to protect the rights of black Southerners after the Civil War, Republican legislators proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified in 1868. This amendment is among the most important provisions ever added to the Constitution, and has powerfully shaped the nation's constitutional history since 1868. The Fourteenth Amendment is the first explicit statement in the U.S. Constitution regarding the definition of American citizenship. The Amendment's first section declares that:

"All persons were born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there of, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make any law which shall abridge the privileges and 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 Fourteenth Amendment places the federal government in the position of guaranteeing citizens' rights by protecting them against state laws that violate their rights. (In the 1830s, the Supreme Court had ruled that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, and did not place limits on the powers of state governments.) This amendment decisively tilted the balance of power in the U.S. away from the separate states toward the national government.