It was a fun event in front of a packed house. Last month, I was asked to debate this question with Josh Hammer by the University of Chicago student chapter of the Federalist Society and UChicago Law Students for Life. This was also an argument made by Texas in Roe, but not one that has ever attracted even a single justice's vote at the Supreme Court. This is the argument made in this amicus brief filed in Dobbs on behalf of John Finnis and Robert George and this Finnis article in First Things.

They argue not only that Roe was wrong as an original matter, but also that the Fourteenth Amendment, properly interpreted, protects unborn life and prohibits abortion. Some Pro-Life advocates have more more ambitious aims. I suspect such questions will dominate the oral argument on Wednesday. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which the justices will reconsider the extent to which the Constitution protects a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.īecause the law in question is incompatible with the 'undue burden' standard as articulated in Casey and subsequent cases, much of the briefing focuses on whether Roe and Casey were correct as an original matter, and (if not) the extent to which principles of stare decisis counsel upholding, modifying, or overturning those decisions. Your browser does not support the audio element.On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Dobbs v. Listen to a recorded reading of this page:.Section 3 was put in to keep members of the Confederacy during the Civil War from holding office.The Equal Protection Clause was put in to stop states from implementing Black Codes which were separate laws for black people.Section 4 says that the federal government would not compensate former slave owners for the loss of their slaves.It is sometimes referred to as Amendment XIV.Interesting Facts about the Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 says that people who have participated in a rebellion against the government cannot hold a state or federal office. The amendment says that all people will be counted as a 'whole number.' Prior to the amendment former slaves were counted as three-fifths a person. Section 2 of the amendment describes how the state population would be counted in order to determine how many members of the House of Representatives each state would have. This clause has been used in several civil rights cases including the landmark case of Brown v. It was put there to make sure that every person (regardless of age, race, religion, etc.) would be treated the same by the government. The amendment also guarantees 'equal protection of the laws.' This is an important clause within the amendment. This is very similar to the due process mentioned in the Fifth Amendment, but here it applies to the state governments rather than the federal government. The amendment guarantees 'due process' of law by the state governments. This means that there are some rights that the state governments cannot touch. The amendment guarantees that the states cannot take away the 'privileges or immunities' of citizens that are given them by the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear that the Bill of Rights also applies to the state governments. The exception to this is if that person lied in order to become a citizen.īefore the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, the Supreme Court said that the Bill of Rights only applied to the federal government, not the state governments. citizen, their citizenship cannot be taken away. The amendment also said that once a person becomes a U.S. citizens and were awarded the rights given to U.S. This was important because it ensured that the freed slaves were officially U.S. It says that anyone born in the United States is a citizen and has the rights of a citizen. The Fourteenth Amendment gives an important definition of a citizen of the United States. If you want to read the text of the amendment, go here. We will describe each section below, but won't list the entire amendment. The 14th Amendment is the longest amendment to the Constitution in number of words. It has proven to be an important and controversial amendment addressing such issues as the rights of citizens, equal protection under the law, due process, and the requirements of the states. It was ratified in 1868 in order to protect the civil rights of freed slaves after the Civil War. The Fourteenth Amendment is the longest amendment to the Constitution.

14th amendment protection