CLEP American Government, Chapter 25

Fourteenth Amendment

Fourteenth Amendment Ratified in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized a new national understanding of citizenship and state responsibility. Its Citizenship Clause repudiated Dred Scott's exclusion of Black Americans from national citizenship. Its Privileges or Immunities, Due Process, and Equal Protection Clauses restrict state action, while Section 5 authorizes Congress to enforce the amendment. The Supreme Court interpreted the Privileges or Immunities Clause narrowly soon after ratification, so due process and equal protection became the principal routes for many later claims. Due process also became the basis for applying most Bill of Rights guarantees to state and local governments through selective incorporation. Equal protection became the central constitutional command against unjustified governmental racial classification and unequal treatment. The actor is the beginner's first checkpoint. A city school board, state registrar, county sheriff, or public university acts for government and can be challenged directly under the Fourteenth Amendment. A private restaurant or landlord ordinarily does not become a state actor merely because the business is regulated or open to the public. Congress may still reach private discrimination through statutes grounded in other constitutional powers, but that is a statutory route rather than a direct equal-protection claim. Section 5 gives Congress important remedial and preventive authority; it does not simply allow Congress to redefine the amendment's constitutional meaning.