Amendment XIV · Reconstruction Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment: Citizenship, due process, and equal protection
About 20 min total: 5 min reading + 15 min for its 11 practice questions
Birthright citizenship; no state may deny due process or equal protection.
- Proposed by Congress
- June 13, 1866
- Ratified
- July 9, 1868
- Group
- Reconstruction Amendment
- Effect on the Constitution
- Section 2 modified Article I, Section 2 (three-fifths rule). Its phrase "twenty-one years of age" was changed by Section 1 of the 26th Amendment.
The text
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 power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
*Changed by section 1 of the 26th amendment. Marked text no longer applies as written.
National Archives note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the 14th amendment.
What it means
- Citizenship Clause: everyone born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction is a citizen of the U.S. and of their state.
- Due Process Clause: no state may take life, liberty, or property without due process. The Court has used it to apply most of the Bill of Rights to the states (selective incorporation).
- Equal Protection Clause: states must give every person equal protection of the laws.
- Section 2 counts all persons for House seats (ending the three-fifths rule); Section 3 bars insurrectionists from office; Section 4 protects the public debt; Section 5 lets Congress enforce it.
Who proposed it
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction drafted it. Representative John A. Bingham of Ohio was the primary author of Section 1. Senator Jacob M. Howard of Michigan managed it in the Senate (in place of an ill William Pitt Fessenden) and added the Citizenship Clause. The Senate passed it 33–11 on June 8, 1866, and the House gave final approval June 13, 1866.
When it was proposed and ratified
- Proposed by Congress: June 13, 1866. Senate June 8, House June 13, 1866.
- Ratified: July 9, 1868. Ratification was probably completed when South Carolina or Louisiana became the 28th of 37 states (Constitution Annotated). Secretary of State Seward certified it on July 20 and again on July 28, 1868.
Amendments are not signed into law. Congress proposes them by a two-thirds vote of both houses, and they become part of the Constitution when three-fourths of the states ratify. The President has no formal role (Article V).
Why it was made
After the Civil War, Southern states passed Black Codes that restricted freed people, and Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) had said Black Americans could not be citizens. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 but feared it could be repealed or struck down. The 14th Amendment wrote citizenship and equal rights into the Constitution, changed how House seats were counted after the end of slavery, barred former officials who joined the rebellion from office, and protected the Union's war debt.
Key Supreme Court cases
- Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954): Equal protection: school segregation unconstitutional
- Plessy v. Ferguson (1896): "Separate but equal" upheld (overturned by Brown)
- Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857): Overturned by the Citizenship Clause
- Mapp v. Ohio (1961): Incorporation: 4th Amendment exclusionary rule
- Gideon v. Wainwright (1963): Incorporation: right to counsel
- McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010): Incorporation: Second Amendment
- Baker v. Carr (1962): Redistricting cases can be heard in court
- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978): Racial quotas in admissions struck down
- Shaw v. Reno (1993): Racial gerrymandering challenged
- Bush v. Gore (2000): Equal protection in the 2000 recount
- Roe v. Wade (1973): Due process privacy (overruled in 2022)
- Obergefell v. Hodges (2015): Same-sex marriage protected by due process and equal protection (2015)
- Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022): Overruled Roe v. Wade (2022)
FCLE tips
- Most-tested amendment: know Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection Clauses.
- Selective incorporation happens through the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause.
| This | With this |
|---|---|
| 14th Due Process: limits states | 5th Due Process: limits the federal government |
| Plessy (1896): separate but equal | Brown (1954): separate is inherently unequal |
Sources: National Archives (text and dates); Constitution Annotated (Congress.gov) (proposal and ratification history); U.S. Senate Historical Office and Library of Congress (sponsors).