The amendment's first section includes the Citizenship Clause, Privileges or Immunities Clause, Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause. The Citizenship Clause broadly defines citizenship, superseding the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v.
Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment renders all public debt accumulated by Congress to be legitimate, and determined that the state and federal governments are under no obligation to compensate for the lost financial value of the freed slaves or the Confederacy's war debts.