Facts to Recognize
- The longest of the three Reconstruction amendments
- The 14th Amendment was passed as a result of the Civil War.
- 14th Amendment is generally regarded as the second most important amendment
- Key Clauses
- guarantees of automatic state citizenship
- guarantees of due process of law
- guarantees of privileges and immunities of citizenship
- guarantees of "equal protection" of the laws.
- It is mostly the "equal protection" clause that provides protection from racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination under law, today.
- the 14th Amendment is a most powerful tool in fighting discrimination.
- also called the Second Bill of Rights
- it removed the 3/5ths rule for blacks
- three-fourths of the states (28 of 37) ratified the amendment
- reversed the Dred Scott decision
- the states would be required to identify the individual rights the federal government was already required to respect in the Bill of Rights and in other constitutional supplies; all of these rights were likely understood as falling within the "privileges or immunities" protected by the amendment.