Fourteenth Amendment Essay, Research Paper

The Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868 as one of the longest amendments to the Fundamental law with five parts in sum. The most important portion is subdivision one. In the really first sentence of subdivision one, & # 8220 ; All individuals born or naturalized in the United States and capable to the legal power thereof, as citizens of the United States and of the province where in they reside & # 8221 ; citizenship was universalized. The Amendment was designed to forbid province authoritiess from restricting the rights of former slaves after the Civil War, nevertheless it has been used to allow all of the personal autonomies and rights conveyed in the Bill of Rights.

The Amendment gives definition to citizenship, requires due procedure and equal protection under the jurisprudence ands reduces representation in Congress for provinces that deny voting rights to its citizens.

In the Dred Scott instance, Chief Justice Taney ruled that United States citizenship belonged merely to two categories of people ; White people born in the United States as descendants of & # 8220 ; individuals, who were at the clip of the acceptance of the Constitution recognized as citizens in the several States and [ who ] became besides citizens of this new political organic structure, and those who were & # 8220 ; born outside the rules of the united provinces: but had migrated at that place and had become established citizens.

Prior to the Constitution, each province regulated citizenship. With the version of the papers, Congress had the authorization to set up a unvarying regulation for naturalisation, but non citizenship & # 8211 ; that was still left up to the province. In order to go a citizen of the United States, one had to first go a citizen of one of the States.

Any Negro was ineligible to achieve citizenship, either by naturalisation or birth. Even as a free adult male, any one of African descent could still non go a citizen. The intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to do citizenship of black single permanent and secure. The amendment did non wholly universalize citizenship because it left out the right to vote, hence the demand for the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments allowing the right to vote to inkinesss and so to adult females, severally.

The Supreme Court under Justice Miller rejected that the

& # 8220 ; amendment & # 8217 ; s privileges and unsusceptibility clause incorporated the Bill of Rights, keeping that the lone rights protec

ted were entree to Washington D.C. , and coastal havens ; the right to protection the high seas ; the right to utilize navigable Waterss of the United States ; the right to assembly and request ; and the privilege of Habeas Corpus.”

It wasn & # 8217 ; t until the 1960 & # 8217 ; s that this amendment truly came into drama. The amendment is used to protect our civil rights and autonomies as Americans. The Supreme tribunal recognized in 1925 with Gitlow v. New York that the Bill of Rights was meant for all people, non merely rich, white males. The tribunal held that freedom of address and of the imperativeness were basic personal rights that were protected by the due procedure clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, & # 8220 ; No & # 8230 ; State shall strip any individual of life, autonomy or belongings with out due procedure of jurisprudence ; nor deny to any person..equal protection of the law. & # 8221 ;

In the 1960 & # 8217 ; s the tribunal so applied that clause to those accused of offenses. They more exhaustively interpreted the Eighth Amendment, sing cruel and unusual penalty and inordinate bond. In 1963, the tribunal universalized the right of the accused to hold a attorney, as noted in the Sixth Amendment. In the subsequent twelvemonth, the right to & # 8220 ; plead the Fifth, & # 8221 ; or non imply one & # 8217 ; s ego was incorporated and guaranteed as a cosmopolitan right. In 1966, the tribunal implemented the right for a individual to stay soundless while being questioned by the constabulary. This Sixth Amendment right now applied to all United States citizens.

In 1972, with Roe v. Wade, refering a adult female & # 8217 ; s right to end a gestation, the Supreme Court decided that within the Fourteenth Amendment existed a cardinal right to privateness as the amendment guarantees autonomy. Embedded in the Fourteenth Amendment & # 8217 ; s right to privateness is the right to homosexualism and homosexual behaviour.

The Fourteenth Amendment is what distinguishes the United States from any other democracy in the universe. The Amendment truly is the charter of cosmopolitan freedom because it guarantees that any individual, black, white, Asiatic, female, or homosexual will hold the same Constitutional warrants as the following individual. It deems that we are all equal under the jurisprudence, intending we are all equal under the Constitution and should regulate ourselves consequently. We are warranted the same rights, protection, privateness and due procedure under the jurisprudence as any other American citizen regardless of race, age, faith or sexual orientation.

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