14th Amendment Advantages

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The fourteenth amendment was ratified in 1868 and is one of the most important and controversial amendments passed in our nation’s history. The amendment defines what a United States citizen is as well as protecting the rights of those citizens. The main clauses are the Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection clauses. The first clause defines what a citizen is and how citizenship is gained. The Due Process clause is what allowed the first amendment rights to be applied directly to the States. The Equal Protection clause prohibited any discrimination by the law. The ratification of this amendment was pivotal to the Reconstruction Era, but its benefits and consequences can still be felt today. The benefits of the fourteenth amendment outweigh its consequences. First, with the definition of a citizen, this legislation describes who is entitled to the our country’s rights. The Due Process clause allows the first amendment rights to be applied to the States. Without it, many basic rights wouldn’t be fully protected. It blocks the States from declining rights in court cases.. With the Equal Protection clause, no discrimination is allowed by law, which was intended to ensure peace following the Civil War. Its loose wording however, laid the groundwork for the …show more content…
Chiefly among those was to set the framework for the new USA during the Reconstruction Era. The North wanted to ensure that the South understood that African Americans were citizens just as much they were and that they couldn’t be discriminated against. If these protections weren’t created, the deep hate that the Southerners had for African Americans would have lead to even further violence that there already was. The purpose of the Due Process clause was to ensure that the States knew that all rights applied to everybody, even for local cases. These purposes and interpretations are epitomized in two of our nation’s most important Supreme Court
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