14th Amendment

Ratified
July 28, 1868        
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 the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Breakdown...
Amendment 14:

• Made African American's citizens.
• Protects the rights of the people.
• Enforces the Bill of Rights on the states.
• Ensured that debts due to the emancipation of slaves were “null and void” (not allowed).

3 Clauses that apply to this Amendment:

• Due Process Clause-trial by jury for all people accused of wrongdoing.
• Equal Protection Clause-no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction "the equal protection of the laws".
• Citizenship Clause-gives individual born in the United States, but especially at that time, African Americans the right to citizenship. 

Cases:

Richardson v. Ramirez (1974)

  Three felons who had completed their sentences, brought a class action against California’s Secretary of State and election officials. They argued that the state had no compelling interest to justify denying them the right to vote. The California Supreme Court agreed that the law was unconstitutional. On appeal, however, the U.S. Supreme Court said that a state does not have to prove that its felony disenfranchisement laws serve a compelling state interest. The Court pointed to Section 2 of the 14th Amendment which exempted felony disenfranchisement laws from the heightened scrutiny given to other restrictions on the right to vote. The Court said that Section 2, which reduces a state’s representation in Congress if the state has denied the right to vote for any reason “except for participation in rebellion, or other crime,” distinguishes felony disenfranchisement from other forms of voting restrictions, which must be narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests in order to be constitutional.

Dredd Scott v. Sanford 1856

Slave-Dredd Scott was living in Missouri. His owner took him to two free states (Minnesota and Illinois) listed under the Missouri Compromise.  Then his master returned to Missouri and sold him to a man named Sanford. Dredd Scott sued Sanford for his freedom under the Missouri Compromise because he should have been a citizen of Missouri by living in a free state for so long. The veiw from Chief Justice Roger Taney was that slaves were not intended to be included in the Constitution under the name of citizens, or have the liberty or rights associated with that name. Since Dredd Scott is not considered a citizen he can not sue, basically voiding the Missouri compromise ad reffering to blacks as property. This man never did obtain his freedom, unfortunately.



This Image of a counterdemonstration in New York City  depicts the harsh opinion that the children of immgrants born in America should not be considered citizens.



This image depicts the controversy over President Obamas birthplace, and the worry that a baby born in the U.S. by immagrants "anchor baby" could possibly become a president. Most of my famil, although they would never admit it, do not consider immigrants to be valuable people because our society does not view them as citizens. We must not forget that we too were immigrants to America and value of any individual should not be based on society's views, we have seen this issue in slavery.