Post–Civil War Amendments to the Constitution
The Founders’ Constitution was forever changed with the end of the Civil War and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.
Read Section I of the Fourteenth Amendment. Think about how it changes what the Bill of Rights means, and to whom it applies.
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 I of Amendment XIV
Take Notes
What do you think “equal protection of the laws” means? In what ways does the Bill of Rights, paired with the Fourteenth Amendment, limit the rights of the states vs. the federal government, and in what ways does it protect individual Americans?
Calderwood Writing Course: U.S. History
