In order to provide Black individuals with equal civil and legal rights, Congress proposed three amendments to the states as part of its Reconstruction program after the Civil War. "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" was another equally significant clause. Both the federal and state governments were now subject to the rights to equal protection under the law and due process.
The House Joint Resolution that proposed the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was delivered to the states on June 16, 1866. The 14th Amendment was proclaimed on July 28, 1868, in a certificate issued by the Secretary of State, ratified by the required 28 of the 37 States, and became the ultimate law of the land.
Intent of the Amendment's Framers
The major author of the 14th Amendment's first part, Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio, intended for the amendment to likewise nationalise the Bill of Rights by making it state-binding. Senator Jacob Howard of Michigan made it clear during the amendment's introduction that the states would be granted "the personal rights promised and secured by the first eight amendments" under the privileges and immunises clause.
Text of the 14th Amendment
Section 1: Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection
Section 2: Apportionment of Representatives
The number of representatives will be distributed among the various States based on the total population of each State, excluding untaxed Indians. However, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion that the number of such male citizens shall bear to the total number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in that State if the right to vote in any election for the choice of electors for the 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 that State who are twenty-one years of age and citizens of the United States, or in any other way.
Section 3: Disqualification from Office
No one who has previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, an officer of the United States, a member of any State legislature, or an executive or judicial officer of any State to support the United States Constitution shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, an elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States or under any State. However, Congress can eliminate such a limitation by a two-thirds vote in either House.
Section 4: Police Debt and Confederate Obligations
The legitimacy of the United States' legally permitted public debt, including obligations incurred for pension payments and rewards for services rendered in quelling insurrection or revolt, shall not be contested. However, neither the United States nor any State may take on or pay any debt or obligation incurred in support of an insurrection or rebellion against the United States, nor any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; all such obligations, debts, and claims would be deemed unlawful and null and void.
Controversial Word in the 14th Amendment
A contentious term in the Fourteenth Amendment"Male"was the most contentious term in the Fourteenth Amendment. The earliest instance of gender-specific wording in the U.S. Constitution is found in Section 2, which deals with voting rights. Because it completely excluded women and restricted voting rights to men, its inclusion was controversial. This phrase deceived many women's rights advocates who had advocated for the eradication of slavery. For this reason, prominent individuals like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton vehemently opposed the amendment. The use of the term "man" caused a major rift between the women's suffrage and abolitionist groups, delaying women's equal voting rights until the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920.
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