Fourteenth Amendment

from From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women

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The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was intended to change the legal status of former
slaves to equal citizens following the Civil War. The amendment was sent to the states on June 16, 1866
and was ratified on July 28, 1868.

The first section of the amendment contains four provisions. The citizenship clause states that citizenship
is the birthright of everyone born in this country. The privileges and immunities clause states that there are
rights and liberties that are included in citizenship and that states cannot make or enforce laws that deny
citizens constitutional rights. The equal protection clause bans racial and other forms of discrimination. The
due process clause ensures procedural fairness.

The amendment includes the first specific statement of equality in the Constitution, which is embodied in
its equal protection clause. When it was proposed, the amendment created a schism between abolitionists
and suffragists because its second section refers to “male inhabitants” as citizens, the first time the
gender qualification appeared in the Constitution. Abolitionists insisted that the newly freed slaves needed
the protection that the amendment offered, saying the time was “the Negro's hour,” whereas suffragists
demanded that the amendment include women. Suffragists lost, but in the 1970s, the Fourteenth
Amendment became an important tool for fighting sex discrimination.

The text of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment is as follows:

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, property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal
protection of the laws.

Early decisions made by the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed that the Fourteenth Amendment was not
intended to place women on the same political and economic planes as men and confirmed that its intent
was to address racial issues. In Minor v. Happersett (1875), the Court said that the privileges and
immunities clause did not grant any rights that a citizen did not have before the amendment.

Courts initially limited the equal protection clause to race but later expanded it to national origin and
alienage. The U.S. Supreme Court expanded the amendment to cover sex discrimination for the first time
in Reed v. Reed (1971) and subsequently decided other sex discrimination cases from that perspective.

See also Reed v. Reed; Sex Discrimination

References

Baer, Women in American Law (1996);.

Freeman, From Protection to Equal Opportunity: The Revolution in Women's Legal Status (1990);.
Gans, David H. , “The Unitary Fourteenth Amendment,” Emory Law Journal, 2007, 56, n 4, 907-940.
Ginsburg, Gender in the Supreme Court: The 1973 and 1974 Terms (1976).

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APA
Fourteenth amendment. (2013). In S. O'Dea, From suffrage to the Senate: America's political women : an
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Chicago
"Fourteenth Amendment." In From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women, by Suzanne O'Dea.
3rd ed. Grey House Publishing, 2013. https://lwhs.idm.oclc.org/login?
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Harvard
Fourteenth amendment. (2013). In S. O'Dea, From suffrage to the Senate: America's political women : an
encyclopedia of leaders, causes & issues. (3rd ed.). [Online]. Amenia: Grey House Publishing. Available
from: https://lwhs.idm.oclc.org/login?
url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ghssapw/fourteenth_amendment/0?
institutionId=6530 [Accessed 15 May 2019].

MLA
"Fourteenth Amendment." From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women, Suzanne O'Dea, Grey
House Publishing, 3rd edition, 2013. Credo Reference, https://lwhs.idm.oclc.org/login?
url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ghssapw/fourteenth_amendment/0?
institutionId=6530. Accessed 15 May 2019.

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