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===14th Amendment===

===14th Amendment===

The 14th Amendment is a broadly worded and expansively interpreted amendment that has been used by the U.S. Supreme Court to invent new "rights", such as abortion.  The 14th Amendment was originally intended to end discrimination against African Americans after the Civil War.  But then the U.S. Supreme Court used it to "incorporate" the Bill of Rights and apply them against State laws ("incorporation doctrine").  Thus the 14th Amendment became the way that the Bill of Rights, which originally applied only against the federal government, were applied against all State and local governments too.

The 14th Amendment is a broadly worded and expansively interpreted amendment that has been used by the U.S. Supreme Court to invent new "rights", such as abortion.  Now the 14th Amendment is being used to try to establish a "right" to same-sex marriage.

The primary use of the 14th Amendment is to prohibit discrimination by government based on race (ethnicity).  Government cannot refuse to grant a driver's license to someone because of the color of his skin, for example.  Government cannot segregate public schools by race (as held in by the U.S. Supreme Court in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954)), or impose any other conditions based on their race.  This is because of the "Equal Protection Clause" in the 14th Amendment.  The Equal Protection Clause prohibits non-racial forms of discrimination too, such as many differences in treatment between men and women, or treating foreigners who are in this Nation lawfully differently from Americans who were born here.  But while government cannot treat people differently based on race, government is allowed to have a few differences based on gender, because the Equal Rights Amendment never became part of the U.S. Constitution.  For example, the military can draft men without drafting women.  The military could not draft whites without also drafting blacks.

The 14th Amendment was originally intended to end discrimination by the States against African Americans after the Civil War.  But later the U.S. Supreme Court used the broad language of the 14th Amendment to invalidate other State laws that have nothing to do with discrimination.  This became known as "incorporation doctrine": the Supreme Court uses broad language in the 14th Amendment to "incorporate" the Bill of Rights and apply them against the States.  Today nearly every claim that a State law is unconstitutional is based on the 14th Amendment itself, or on incorporation doctrine that the 14th Amendment applies the Bill of Rights against the State.

Then, beginning with the liberal "Warren Court" (led by Chief Justice Earl Warren), the U.S. Supreme Court began using the 14th Amendment to create new rights never before thought to be in the U.S. Constitution.  The Warren Court ended when Chief Justice Earl Warren retired in 1969, but its decisions provided the basis for ''Roe v. Wade'' on January 22, 1973, which created a new constitutional "right" to abortion nationwide.  The March for Life has been held in D.C. every year since in protest against that ruling.

The 14th Amendment is used in a direct way to prohibit discrimination by State and local governments based on race (ethnicity). States cannot refuse to grant a driver's license to someone because of the color of his skin, for example.  Government cannot segregate public schools by race (as held in by the U.S. Supreme Court in ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954)), or impose any other conditions based on race.  This is because of the "Equal Protection Clause" in the 14th Amendment.   

The 14th Amendment applies in many areas other than abortion.  It creates rights of "due process" when dealing with government, which (for example) interferes with the ability of a school district to fire a bad public school teacher.  Under the 14th Amendment, whenever government does anything against an individual, it must provide basic elements of due process.

The Equal Protection Clause prohibits non-racial forms of discrimination too, such as requiring an all-male military college (VMI) to admit women too, or treating foreigners who are in this Nation lawfully differently from Americans who were born here.  But while government cannot treat people differently based on race, government is allowed to have a few differences based on gender because the Equal Rights Amendment never became part of the U.S. Constitution.  For example, the military can have a men-only military draft.  But the military could not draft whites without also drafting blacks, because discrimination by government based on race is never allowed.

What is "due process"?  It means, most fundamentally, the right to advance notice of an action the government is going to take against you, and an opportunity to be heard in order to object to that action.  It can also include the right to use an attorney to argue your case for you, and the right to call witnesses and ask them questions.

But racial discrimination is a small percentage of the issues raised under the 14th Amendment today.  Beginning with the liberal "Warren Court" (led by Chief Justice Earl Warren) in the 1950s, the U.S. Supreme Court began using the 14th Amendment to create new rights never before thought to be in the U.S. Constitution.  The Warren Court ended when Chief Justice Earl Warren retired in 1969, but its decisions provided the basis for ''Roe v. Wade'' on January 22, 1973, which created a new constitutional "right" to abortion nationwide.  The March for Life has been held in D.C. every year since in protest against that ruling.

For example, if government is going to try to take your property away from you (as in "eminent domain," when it takes private property to build a new highway), then it must give you advance notice and a hearing at which you have an opportunity to be heard and can have an attorney call witnesses and question them.  The Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay you "just compensation" if it does take your property, and "due process" entitles you to a hearing about what the amount of compensation should be.

 

 

For example, if government is going to try to take your property away from you (as in "eminent domain," when it takes private property to build a new highway), then it must give you prior notice and a hearing at which you have an opportunity to be heard and can have an attorney call witnesses and question them.  The Fifth Amendment requires the government to pay you "just compensation" if it does take your property, and "due process" entitles you to a hearing about what the amount of compensation should be.

===15th Amendment===

===15th Amendment===