14th Amendment - Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt | Constitution Center.
SECTION 2. Basic rights.—All natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life and liberty, to pursue happiness, to be rewarded for industry, and to acquire, possess and protect property.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified by Ohio on January 4; New York on January 10; Kansas on January 11; Illinois on January 15; West Virginia, Michigan, and Minnesota on January 16; Maine on January 19; Nevada on January 22; Indiana on January 23, and Missouri on January 25.
There are five ways to get a proposed amendment on the statewide ballot: (1) joint resolution by the Florida Legislature; (2) Florida Constitution Revision Commission; (3) Citizens' Initiative; (4) Constitutional Convention; and (5) Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission .
A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
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.
The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause provides that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.
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 Five of the Fourteenth Amendment vests Congress with the authority to adopt “appropriate” legislation to enforce the other parts of the Amendment—most notably, the provisions of Section One.
The Fifth Amendment breaks down into five rights or protections: The right to indictment by grand jury. Protection against double jeopardy. Protection against self-incrimination. The right to due process of law. Protection against the taking of property by the federal or state government without compensation.