An Overview of the 14th Amendment

What is the 14th Amendment?

“Section 1. 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, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

The14th Amendment Defined

Date Proposed

The 14th Amendment was proposed on June 13th, 1865

Date Passed

The 14th Amendment was passed July 9th, 1868

President of the United States

Andrew Johnson was the President of the United States during the ratification of the 14th Amendment; he assumed the roles of the Presidency as a result of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Stipulations of the 14thAmendment

The 14th Amendment illustrates legislation that disallows the government from infringing on the right(s) to pursue ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’ with regard to any and all citizens of the United States of America – this statute is applicable to all measures of gender, race, religion, and age

The 14th Amendment mandates that citizens of the United States may undergo the loss of their respective citizenship in the event of the discovery of citizenship fraud or the petition for the rejection of citizenship on the part of a once-naturalized citizen

14th Amendment Facts

The Citizenship Clause within the 14th Amendment mandates that all citizens of the United States are entitled the rights expressed within the Constitution; the Equal Jurisdiction Clause within the 14th Amendment prohibits prejudice with regard to the jurisdiction of the Constitution

The 14th Amendment introduced the legal instrument of Due Process, which mandates the government’s obligation to respect, maintain, and uphold the legal rights of its citizens; the government is forbidden from infringing on individual’s human rights and liberties – this includes fair, respectful, and ethical treatment devoid of undue violence and harm

States Ratifying the 14th Amendment

1. Alabama

2. Arkansas

3. California

4. Connecticut

5. Delaware

6. Florida

7. Georgia

8. Illinois

9. Indiana

10. Iowa

11. Kansas

12. Kentucky

13. Louisiana

14. Maine

15. Maryland

16. Massachusetts

17. Michigan

18. Minnesota

19. Mississippi

20. Missouri

21. Nebraska

22. Nevada

23. New Hampshire

24. New Jersey

25. New York

26. North Carolina

27. Ohio

28. Oklahoma

29. Oregon

30. Pennsylvania

31. Rhode Island

32. South Carolina

33. Tennessee

34. Texas

35. Vermont

36. Virginia

37. West Virginia

38. Wisconsin

States Not Participatory in the Ratification of the 14th Amendment

Although failing to receive unanimous ratification, the 14th Amendment has since received subsequent – and collective – ratification from all applicable states

Statutes Associated with the 14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment – in addition to the 13th and 15th Amendments – is categorized as one of the 3 Constitutional Amendments regarded as ‘Reconstruction Amendments’; these Amendments took place within 5 years following the Civil War – they may also be referred to as ‘Civil War Amendments’

The Dred Scott v. Sandford case (1857) mandated that African Americans – regardless of citizenship or applicable grandfather clauses – were ineligible to enjoy the freedoms and rights expressed within the Constitution of the United States; this court case was overturned as a result of the ratification of the 14th Amendment

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