Equal rights protection clause9/17/2023 ![]() ![]() full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens." Sandford), and required that "citizens of every race and color. The Act provided that all persons born in the United States were citizens (contrary to the Supreme Court's 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. ![]() īecause of the inequality imposed by Black Codes, a Republican-controlled Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Such codes also established harsher criminal consequences for blacks than for whites. Subsequently, many ex- Confederate states then adopted Black Codes following the war, with these laws severely restricting the rights of blacks to hold property, including real property (such as real estate), and many forms of personal property, and to form legally enforceable contracts. Shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, abolishing slavery. During the Civil War, many of the Southern states stripped the state citizenship of many whites and banished them from their state, effectively seizing their property. īefore and during the Civil War, the Southern states prohibited speech of pro-Union citizens, anti-slavery advocates, and northerners in general, since the Bill of Rights did not apply to the states during such times. Currently, a plurality of historians believe that this judicial decision set the United States on the path to the Civil War, which led to the ratifications of the Reconstruction Amendments. Sandford decision, the Supreme Court rejected abolitionism and determined black men, whether free or in bondage, had no legal rights under the U.S. Black people were considered inferior to white Americans, and subject to chattel slavery in the slave states until the Emancipation Proclamation and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.Įven black Americans that were not enslaved lacked many crucial legal protections. Before passage of the Reconstruction Amendments, which included the Equal Protection Clause, American law did not extend constitutional rights to black Americans. Though equality under the law is an American legal tradition arguably dating to the Declaration of Independence, formal equality for many groups remained elusive. Background Ĭongressman John Bingham of Ohio was the principal framer of the Equal Protection Clause. 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. The Equal Protection Clause is located at the end of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment:Īll 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. Sharpe (1954) that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment nonetheless imposes various equal protection requirements on the federal government via reverse incorporation. While the Equal Protection Clause itself applies only to state and local governments, the Supreme Court held in Bolling v. Hodges which legalized same-sex marriages, along with many other decisions rejecting discrimination against, and bigotry towards, people belonging to various groups. The clause has also been the basis for Obergefell v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision that helped to dismantle racial segregation. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate, and inspired the well-known phrase " Equal Justice Under Law". As a whole, the Fourteenth Amendment marked a large shift in American constitutionalism, by applying substantially more constitutional restrictions against the states than had applied before the Civil War. Ī primary motivation for this clause was to validate the equality provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guaranteed that all citizens would have the guaranteed right to equal protection by law. deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It mandates that individuals in similar situations be treated equally by the law. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "nor shall any State. The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. ![]()
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