14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

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The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees the rights of citizens and other persons:

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 9, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws.” By directly mentioning the role of the states, the 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans and is cited in more litigation than any other amendment.

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.

Proposal and Ratification

The Congress proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States on June 13, 1866. Per Article Five of the Constitution, twenty-eight of the thirty-seven states were needed for ratification of the 14th Amendment. By July 9, 1868, twenty-eight states had ratified the Amendment:

#	State	Date
1	Connecticut	Jun 25, 1866
2	New Hampshire	Jul 6, 1866
3	Tennessee	Jul 19, 1866
4	New Jersey	Sep 11, 1866
5	Oregon	Sep 19, 1866
6	Vermont	Oct 30, 1866
7	Ohio	Jan 4, 1867
8	New York	Jan 10, 1867
9	Kansas	Jan 11, 1867
10	Illinois	Jan 15, 1867
11	West Virginia	Jan 16, 1867
12	Michigan	Jan 16, 1867
13	Minnesota	Jan 16, 1867
14	Maine	Jan 19, 1867
15	Nevada	Jan 22, 1867
16	Indiana	Jan 23, 1867
17	Missouri	Jan 25, 1867
18	Rhode Island	Feb 7, 1867
19	Wisconsin	Feb 7, 1867
20	Pennsylvania	Feb 12, 1867
21	Massachusetts	Mar 20, 1867
22	Nebraska	Jun 15, 1867
23	Iowa	Mar 16, 1868
24	Arkansas	Apr 6, 1868
25	Florida	Jun 9, 1868
26	North Carolina	Jul 4, 1868
27	Louisiana	Jul 9, 1868
28	South Carolina	Jul 9, 1868
29	Alabama	Jul 13, 1868
30	Georgia	Jul 21, 1868
31	Virginia	Oct 8, 1869
32	Mississippi	Jan 17, 1870
33	Texas	Feb 18, 1870
34	Delaware	Feb 12, 1901
35	Maryland	Apr 4, 1959
36	California	May 6, 1959
37	Kentucky	Mar 18, 1976

Sources: Library of Congress (Primary Documents in American History); U.S. Constitution Online; National Park Service

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