Fourteenth Amendment

The 1868 amendment establishing birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection

Overview

The Fourteenth Amendment defined national citizenship over the Dred Scott denial, bound states to due process and equal protection, and empowered Congress to enforce those guarantees. It is the most litigated part of the Constitution, the vehicle for incorporating the Bill of Rights against the states, for the landmark school desegregation decision of 1954, and for modern rights litigation of every stripe. Its privileges or immunities clause, gutted early, remains a scholar's dream of revival. Its due process clause rewrote the relationship between Washington and the states, case by case.