Procedural Due Process: The Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause has been interpreted by the courts to provide the same “protection against arbitrary state legislation, affecting life, liberty and property, as is offered by the Fifth Amendment.” This has meant that state laws that take away a person’s property or otherwise jeopardize their life or liberty must afford persons a fair and impartial way to challenge that action.
For example, the due process clause has ensured that people on welfare are able to challenge the loss of their benefits at an administrative hearing, and has meant that parents who are accused of child abuse, or the mentally ill who are being committed will have the opportunity to contest the state’s allegations in a court hearing. Often thought of as a provision that guarantees fairness, the due process clause requires government to use even-handed procedures, so that it is less likely to act in an arbitrary way.
Substantive Due Process: The Supreme Court has found that the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause protects individuals from arbitrary state laws or actions that interfere with fundamental liberties. More than offering a process of fairness, courts have found that the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from harming an individual’s ability to fully participate in society. Liberty, the Court held in Meyer v. Nebraska, “denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also the right of the individual to contract, to engage in any of the common occupations of life, to acquire useful knowledge, to marry, establish a home and bring up children, to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and generally to enjoy those privileges long recognized at common law as essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”
Although the Supreme Court usually presumes that state legislation, particularly economic regulation, is valid since it is the product of a democratic process, the Court has held that substantive due process will provide some protections for parents’ rights to care for their children, a woman’s ability to use contraception and to have an abortion; and other significant freedoms.
Equal Protection of the Laws: Although the Declaration of Independence declared that all men were created equal, many persons living in our early republic, including Native Americans, African-American slaves and women were denied fundamental rights and liberties such as the right to vote, own property and freely travel. The passage of Amendment XIV — particularly the equal protection clause — along with the power of Congress to enforce it, incorporated the Declaration’s ideal into the Constitution. The equal protection clause limits the ability of states to discriminate against people based on their race, national origin, gender, or other status. For example the clause has been used to guarantee voting rights, school integration, the rights of women and minorities to equal employment opportunities and the rights of immigrants to attend public school. The extensive history of litigation under the equal protection clause in fact mirrors the struggle for civil rights of all Americans.
Apportionment and Reapportionment: Article I, Section 2 had initially provided that the number of districts in the House of Representatives would be divided among the states according to a formula in which only three-fifths of the total number of slaves in slave-owning states were counted in the state’s population. Amendment XIV, Section 2 eliminated the three-fifths rule, specifically stating that representation to the House is to be divided among the states according to their respective numbers, counting all persons in each state (except Native Americans who were not taxed). The provision also punished states that did not let all males over the age of 21 vote by reducing their population for purposes of representation in Congress.
With the adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, the right to vote in federal elections was extended to women. Eighteen- to twenty-one-year-olds became voters in 1971, with the adoption of Amendment XXVI. But language in this section has been used to support the constitutionality of state laws than deny felons the right to vote. Both Sections 3 and 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment affected persons who waged war against the Union during the Civil War and the obligations of those states who had been part of the Confederacy. Amendment XIV, Section 3 pro- hibits any person who had gone to war against the union or given aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies from running for federal or state office, unless Congress by a two-thirds vote specifically permitted it.
Amendment XIV, Section 4 allowed the federal and state governments to refuse to pay war debts of the Confederate army as well as any claims made by slave owners for their losses when slaves were freed. Lastly, Amendment XIV, Section 5 gives Congress the power to enforce all the provisions within the whole amendment. This gives Congress the power to pass laws that protect civil rights, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
*Who We Are
Launched in 2006, Annenberg Classroom is a project of the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Our founders are Ambassadors Walter H. Annenberg and Leonore Annenberg.
Our Goals
Engaged and well-informed citizens are vital to making our government work at the local, state and federal levels. But civics knowledge surveys conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center show that Americans lack a basic understanding of the Constitution and how our system of governance works. In a survey released on Constitution Day 2016, only a quarter of Americans could name all three branches of government and nearly one-third could not name any of the three branches.
Through a high-quality civics education, students learn to become active and responsible citizens who understand their rights and responsibilities as outlined in the Constitution. In the words of Walter Annenberg: “Citizenship is every person’s highest calling.” Annenberg Classroom strives to help develop a citizenry that demands and supports a functioning democracy.
What We Do
To support the Annenbergs’ vision, Annenberg Classroom provides a free multimedia Constitution curriculum to educators and the general public. More than 60 videos that teach about constitutional concepts and landmark Supreme Court cases are available. Most have subtitles in English and Spanish; some are subtitled in multiple languages. Standards-aligned lesson plans accompany the videos. Interactive games engage students while teaching them about the Bill of Rights and the three branches of government. The Annenberg Guide to the Constitution: What It Says, What It Means is a wonderful research tool for students trying to understand the words and meaning of this founding document. The timelines connected to the Constitution’s articles and amendments are another useful tool. A comprehensive glossary covers terms in government, civics and economics.
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