Law Week 2017
“The 14th Amendment:
Transforming American Democracy”
T
he 2017 theme for Law Week
provides the opportunity to explore the many ways that the
Fourteenth Amendment has
reshaped American law and society. Through its Citizenship, Due Process and Equal Protection clauses, this
transformative amendment advanced
the rights of all Americans. It also played
a pivotal role in extending the reach of
the Bill of Rights to the states. Ratified
during Reconstruction a century and a
half ago, the Fourteenth Amendment
serves as the cornerstone of landmark
civil rights legislation, the foundation
for numerous federal court decisions
protecting fundamental rights, and a
source of inspiration for all those who
advocate for equal justice under law.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified
and became part of the Constitution on
July 9, 1868. Ohio’s own Representative
John Bingham was its principal author,
having written the text of Section One
of the Amendment. This section includes
the due process, equal protection, and
citizenship clauses, which, today, are at
the heart of many of the most important U.S. constitutional protections. Bingham’s use of “privileges or immunities”
is explicitly drawn from the language
of Dred Scott and is intended to fundamentally reject the case. The Fourteenth
constitutionalizes national citizenship
and other provisions of the Civil Rights
Act of 1866 and is part of the trio of
Reconstruction Amendments, including
the Thirteenth and Fifteenth, which have
been collectively termed “America’s
Second Founding.”
Key cases throughout US history that
have been based on or that helped
to further define and expand the 14th
amendment include:
Civil Rights Act of 1871
Congress passes a Civil Rights Act “to
enforce provisions of the Fourteenth
Amendment.” The legislation is also
known as the Ku Klux Klan Act. Today,
section one of the Act has been codified as Section 1983 of Title 42 of the U.S.
Code.
Susan B. Anthony Trial 1873
Suffragist Susan B. Anthony goes on
federal trial
charged with
“unlawfully” voting for Congress
the prior November “being …a
person of the female sex.” Central to her argument is that that
the citizenship
and privileges or immunities provisions of
the Fourteenth Amendment effectively
extend the right to vote to women.
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United States v. Wong Kim Ark 1898
Guarantees birthright national
citizenship under
the Fourteenth
Amendment to all
born on American
territory.
Wong Kim Ark was
born in San Francisco in 1873 to
parents “of Chinese descent, and subjects of the Emperor of China.” Establishing a principle of American birthright citizenship, the Supreme Court rules
that “the Fourteenth Amendment
affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth
… [which] includes the children
born, within the territory of the
United States, of all other persons,
of whatever race or color.”
Truman Issues Executive Order
9981 to Desegregate U.S. Military
1948
Spurred by organized World War II-era
civil rights efforts, Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 on July 26, declaring
that “the policy of the President [is] that
there shall be equality of treatment and
opportunity for all persons in the armed
services without regard to race, color,
religion or national origin.” The order
stipulates that it “shall be put into effect
as rapidly as possible.” Organized civil
rights efforts, catalyzed by World War
II, spur Truman’s action to desegregate
America’s military.
Brown v. Board of Education 1954
The Supreme Court unanimously holds in
a consolidated case that racially segre-
gated public schools violate the equal
protection clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment, ruling that the “separate
but equal” doctrine derived from Plessy
v. Ferguson, the 1896 decision upholding a Louisiana law requiring racially
segregated trains, was unconstitutional.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Termed “The Bill of the Century,” the
landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which
bans racial segregation in public accommodations and the workplace, is
enacted into law.
Loving v. Virginia 1967
Laws prohibiting interracial marriages
violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The
freedom to marry a person of another
race cannot be infringed.
Americans with Disabilities Act 1990
The National Council on Disability recommends and drafts the initial version
of what becomes the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990. In enacting the
ADA, Congress finds that “unlike individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex,
national origin, religion, or age, individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of disability have often
had no legal recourse to redress such
discrimination.”
United States v. Virginia 1996
The Supreme Court holds that the publicly funded Virginia Military Institute’s
male-only admissions policy violates the
equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
McDonald v. Chicago 2010
Obergefell v. Hodges 2015
The fundamental right
to marry
extends to
same-sex
couples and
is grounded
synergistically
on both due process and equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment.
In District of Columbia v. Heller (2008),
the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual
right to bear arms for the purpose of
self defense and invalidated a federal government-authorized District of
Columbia law that banned handguns
in the home. In McDonald, the Court
further holds that Second Amendment
rights are “fully applicable to the States”
through the Fourteenth Amendment.
Content for this article was obtained from the American Bar Association’s 14th Amendment Timeline which is part of a wealth of resources available on the ABA’s website. Click here to read more....