U.S. Constitution - Amendment 14

Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights

1. 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.

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States,
or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of surrection
or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such 
debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Jurisdiction:
The power, right, or authority to interpret and apply the law : the limits or territory within which authority may be exercised.

Deprive:
1. To take something away from; divest.
2. To keep from the possession of something.

Constitutional Topic; Due Process:

Due process is a difficult thing to define, and the Supreme Court has not been much help over the years. Here's what we can say about due process:

In the Magna Carta, due process is referred to as "Law of the Land" and "Legal Judgment of Peers."
Some state constitutions continue to use these phrases.

The reference in the 5th Amendment applies only to the Federal Government and its courts and agencies. The reference in the 14th Amendment extends protection
of due process to all State Governments, Agencies, and Courts.

Due process, in the context of the United States, refers to how and why Laws are enforced. It applies to all persons, Citizen or Alien, as well as to corporations.

In that, the "how" is procedural due process. Is a Law too vague? Is it applied fairly to all?
Does a Law presume guilt? A vagrancy Law might be declared too vague if the definition of a vagrant is not detailed enough. A Law that makes wife beating illegal but
permits husband beating might be declared to be an unfair application. A Law must be clear, fair, and have a presumption of innocence to comply with procedural
due process.

The "why" is substantive due process. Even if an unreasonable law is passed and signed into law legally (procedural due process), substantive due process
can make the law unconstitutional. The Roe v Wade abortion decision declared a Texas Law in violation of due process and ruled that in the first trimester, it is
unreasonable for a state to interfere with a woman's right to an abortion; during the second trimester, it is reasonable for a state to regulate abortion in the interest of the health of mothers; and in the third, the state has a reasonable interest
in protecting the fetus. Another application has been to strike down legislation requiring certain non-dangerous mentally ill persons be confined against their will.

Generally, due process guarantees the following (this list is not exhaustive):

• Right to a fair and Public Trial conducted in a competent manner
• Right to be Present at the Trial
• Right to an Impartial Jury
• Right to be heard in one's own Defense
• Laws must be written so that a reasonable person can understand what is Criminal Behavior
• Taxes may only be taken for public purposes
• Property may be taken by the government only for public purposes
• Owners of taken property must be fairly compensated

The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted after the Civil War as one of the Reconstruction Amendments on July 9, 1868.

The Fourteenth Amendment provides a broad definition of citizenship, overruling the decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which held that blacks could not be citizens of the United States.

Its Due Process Clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the states. This clause has also been used to recognize substantive due process rights, such as parental and marriage rights, and procedural due process rights. Certain steps are required before depriving people (individual and corporate) of life, liberty, or property.

The amendment's Equal Protection Clause requires states to provide equal protection under the law to all people within their jurisdictions. This clause later became the basis for Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court decision which precipitated the dismantling of racial segregation in the United States.