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What was 14th Amendment

Fourteenth Amendment

The 14th Amendment (also known as Amendment XIV) to the US Constitution was adopted as part of Reconstruction on July 9, 1868. 

It was proposed in response to challenges faced by former slaves in the years after the American Civil War and is usually seen as one of the most important amendments.

It deals with citizenship rights and equal protection under the law.

The amendment was strongly opposed, especially by the states that were part of the defeated Confederacy.

However, these states had to approve it to regain their seats in Congress.

The 14th Amendment was an amendment to the United States Constitution that gave citizenship and equal civil and legal rights to African Americans and slaves who were freed after the American Civil War.

It included these people in the definition of "all persons born or naturalised in the United States." 

The amendment is made up of five parts. Four of them started out as different bills in 1866, but they got stuck in the legislative process and were later combined with a fifth enforcement section to make a single amendment.

14th Amendment Insurrection

The so-called "Reconstruction Amendment" said that states couldn't take away someone's "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," and they also couldn't deny everyone in their state equal security under the law.

The Thirteenth Amendment nullified a part of the Constitution that decided who would represent each state in the House of Representatives.

It used a formula that treated each slave as three-fifths of a person.

The Fourteenth Amendment's provision that said representatives should be "apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the entire population in each state, excluding Indians not subject to taxation" replaced this.

The amendment also said that people who had served in civil or military office in the past and supported the Union could not hold any state or federal office again.

However, this rule could be revoked for people with a two-thirds vote in both Houses of Congress.

The amendment also protected the national debt and kept the federal government and state governments from having to pay for the bills that the rebellious Confederate States of America made.

Last but not least, the last part, similar to the Thirteenth Amendment, said how it would be implemented.

What is the 14th Amendment in Simple terms?

On July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment became law.

The amendment made sure that all Americans had freedom, due process, and equal security under the law.

It provided citizenship to people who were born or naturalised in the United States. This improved the Constitution's protection of individual freedom.

It meant that the Constitution no longer just protected rights from the federal authorities, but also from state and local governments.

14th Amendment History

At first, the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment caused some debate.

This was especially true among legal experts in the South, who said that the change was not legal because of how it was approved.

Even though Ohio and New Jersey withdrew their support for the amendment, they were still counted as ratifiers of it.

Because of this problem, Secretary of State Seward didn't formally adopt the Fourteenth Amendment until July 28, after Alabama and Georgia had also done so.

However, the southern states that had lost and were now subject to federal military courts continued to claim that the amendment was illegal because they needed to sign it in order for their states to regain full legal status.

Since the 1860s, all of the states that were against the Fourteenth Amendment have now signed on to it.

This ends any doubts about its legality. Section 1's guarantees of proper process, equal security, and rights and protections for all U.S. citizens have been used as a basis for a number of important Supreme Court decisions.

The two pages of the fourteenth amendment signed by Congress are in the National Archives, written with iron gall ink on parchment.

14th Amendment Pg1of2 AC.jpg
By National Archives of the United States - <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters_downloads.html">[1]</a>, Public Domain, Link

14th Amendment Pg2of2 AC.jpg
By National Archives of the United States - <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="https://www.archives.gov/national-archives-experience/charters/charters_downloads.html">[1]</a>, Public Domain, Link

Since 2024, it has been preserved in a box in the archives' research wing in a 39th-session Acts of Congress book. 

It was last displayed in 2013.[3]

14th Amendment Section 1

This crucial objective should guide amendment understanding. The fourteenth amendment, particularly Section 1, has been the most disputed component of the Constitution.

Section 1 of 14th amendment states that anyone born or naturalised in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen of both the country and their state of residence.

No state shall enact or enforce any law that restricts the rights or privileges of United States citizens; nor shall any state deny any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall any state deny any person within its jurisdiction equal protection under the laws.

14th Amendment Section 2

The representatives will be appointed to each state as per its population, calculated by adding up all the people living there (excluding Indians who don't pay taxes).

It is against the law for any twenty-one-year-old male resident of a state who is a citizen of the United States to be denied the right to vote in any election for:

  • President and Vice President of the United States, 
  • Representatives in Congress,
  • the executive and judicial officers of that state, or
  • members of that state's legislature. 

This includes those who are taking part in rebellions or other offences.

14th Amendment Section 3

The Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 prohibits anyone from holding civil or military positions in the United States (Federal) or any state that has previously taken an oath to support the US Constitution and has engaged in a revolt. 

However, Congress has the authority to remove such a restriction with a two-thirds majority in each House.

14th Amendment Section 4

Section 4 of 14th amendment states that the United States public debt, including pensions and rewards for fighting insurgencies or revolts, is legal and cannot be challenged.

However, neither the United States nor any state shall undertake or pay any debt or obligation made in aid of an insurrection or revolt against the United States, or any claim for the loss or liberty of a slave; all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be deemed illegal and invalid.

14th Amendment Section 5

Section 5 of 14th amendemnt empowers Congress to enforce the provisions of this article through appropriate legislation.

Overview

The Fourteenth Amendment includes several important principles, the most well-known of which are state action, privileges and immunities, citizenship, due process, and equal protection—all of which are included in Section One.

However, the Fourteenth Amendment includes four additional provisions. Section Two addresses the allocation of representatives to Congress.

Section Three of the United States Constitution prohibits people who participate in "insurrection or rebellion" against the country from holding any position in the federal government.

Section Four covers federal debt and repudiates Confederate debts.

Section 5 specifically empowers Congress to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment "by appropriate legislation."

The states adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, along with the Thirteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, in 1868, immediately following the American Civil War.