The 14th Amendment simplified the rights of the citizens and the limitation of the states.

The 14th Amendment simplified the rights of the citizens and the limitation of the states.

The 14th Amendment simplified the rights of the citizens and the limitation of the states.

The 14th amendment to the United States Constitution got ratified on 9th July 1868, just after three years of ending the Civil War (1865). The amendment is quite a long one, having five sections and each section of the 14th amendment simplified the rights of the citizen and equal protection of the law.

Explanation of the content of the 14th amendment: Section 1 The amendment granted citizenship to the born or naturalized people in the United States, which also includes the former slaves.

The states cannot deprive anyone (citizens of the U.S.)of life, liberty, and property with the due process of law. The due process of law means the legal proceedings to be fair and just.

In the U.S. constitution, ‘Due Process’ is the phrase that is used twicefirst in the fifth amendment than in the fourteenth amendment.

Section 2 This section of the amendment stated that all the citizens of the U.S. would enjoy equal protection under the law, i.e., everybody will be treated equally and enjoy the same rights, there shall be no discrimination based on caste, color, race, sex, religion.

The amendment is one of the three amendments passed during the reconstruction era, which could end up slavery and thus establish civil and legal rights for Black Americans.

Like the Sixth amendment to the United States Constitution, the 14th amendment protects individuals’ rights under the court of law by giving equal protection under the law.

Section 3 The 14th amendment simplified that the federal government will have the right to punish the state if found in violation or abridging the citizen’s freedom to vote.

Section 4 The amendment stated that any person who has ever rebelled against the United States will not be able to hold civil, military, or elected office.

Section 5 The fifth section of the amendment states that the United States nor any of its states could get forced to pay for the Confederacy’s debts during the Civil War.

Background of the 14th Amendment: Right after the Civil War, many states started following the law known as black codes, which restricted many of the rights of the former slaves that included restrictions on travel, ownership of the property, and suing on the court.

The black code law kept the former slaves dependent on the white planters and plantation owners.

The Fourteenth amendment protected African Americans and protected the blacks from unfair black codes.

Ratification Of the 14th Amendment: The fourteenth amendment having different proposals - the civil rights, a representative in Congress, and the punishment for the former Confederate States of America, was written

by Representative Thaddeus Stevens.

The amendment was not supported by the Southern States and President Andrew Johnson (the same way he did not support the Civil Rights Act of 1866).

But the 14th amendment got the desired number of votes from the house and the Senate.

Then the Congress required the Southern states to ratify the amendment to regain representation in Congress after the Civil War. And after two years (July 9, 1968), the amendment was finally ratified when Louisiana and South Carolina voted to ratify the 14th amendment; thus, this made it necessary to get the required two-thirds majority.

Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Brown v. Board of Education Case:

Brown v. Board of Education case of 1954 is one of the most famous cases of the 14th amendment.

The case’s findings were that the African American students were not allowed to get admission to certain public schools (the schools for whites). The argument focussed on the point that schools’ segregation violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment.

The lower court denied relief to the plaintiff based on the Plessy v. Ferguson case (in which the supreme court ruled that the segregated facilities were legal as long as the facilities for both black and whites are equal- the ‘separate but equal doctrine).

Chief Justice Earl Warren delivered the court’s opinion. The supreme court ruled that ‘separate but equal’ facilities violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Both black and white children should attend the same public school without any segregation.

Summary The 14th amendment simplified the laws for the citizens of the United States so that everyone could have equal rights and equal protection of the law, thus minimizing discrimination based on caste, religion, sex, race, etc. The fourteenth amendment also limits the state to enforce any law that might abridge the citizens’ rights.

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