The Fourteenth Amendment, Section One

The Text

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.

What It Says

Citizenship is defined by birth or naturalization. States may not abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens, may not take life, liberty, or property without due process, and may not deny equal protection of the laws.

What It Protects Against

State governments doing what the federal government is forbidden to do. Before this amendment the Bill of Rights restrained Congress but not the states, which left a citizen’s protections dependent on which state they lived in.

Protocol Media reading. Not sourced to a ratification-era document.

Problem Addressed

After the Civil War, Southern states enacted Black Codes restricting the movement, contracts, and legal standing of freedmen, demonstrating that federal limits alone did not protect citizens from their own state governments.