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148-627: The Reconstruction period and its subsequent end led to a discussion among both Blacks and Whites in the South on how to interpret "equal rights" and the new Reconstruction Amendments . J. P. Weaver, a Black preacher, had advised Blacks to accept separate accommodations if they were "first-class". "But if there is no such accommodation set apart for you, and you are crowded upon by base and reckless beings, depriving you of all that tends to your happiness ... excuse yourself for being colored, and walk in another car and cabin". Following Reconstruction and

296-492: A Freedmen's Bureau to provide much-needed food and shelter to the newly freed slaves. As it became clear that the war would end in a Union victory, Congress debated the process for the readmission of the seceded states. Radical and moderate Republicans disagreed over the nature of secession, the conditions for readmission, and the desirability of social reforms as a consequence of the Confederate defeat. Lincoln favored

444-633: A Constitutional amendment could protect black people's rights and welfare within those states. The U.S. Supreme Court stated in Shelley v. Kraemer (1948) that the historical context leading to the Fourteenth Amendment's adoption must be taken into account, that this historical context reveals the Amendment's fundamental purpose and that the provisions of the Amendment are to be construed in light of this fundamental purpose. In its decision

592-646: A Reconstruction belief that the government could protect civil and political rights . In the American Civil War , eleven Southern states, all of which permitted slavery , seceded from the United States following the election of Lincoln to the presidency and formed the Confederate States of America . Though Lincoln initially declared secession "legally void" and declined to negotiate with Confederate delegates to Washington, following

740-631: A century. In Saenz v. Roe (1999), the Court ruled that a component of the " right to travel " is protected by the Privileges or Immunities Clause: Despite fundamentally differing views concerning the coverage of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, most notably expressed in the majority and dissenting opinions in the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), it has always been common ground that this Clause protects

888-813: A component of Reconstruction, the Interior Department ordered a meeting of representatives from all Indian tribes who had affiliated with the Confederacy. The council, the Southern Treaty Commission , was first held in Fort Smith, Arkansas in September 1865, and was attended by hundreds of Native Americans representing dozens of tribes. Over the next several years the commission negotiated treaties with tribes that resulted in additional re-locations to Indian Territory and

1036-689: A designated White car on the Louisiana and Nashville Railroad from New Orleans to Montgomery, Alabama. The destination of another state was chosen specifically because of the belief that it violated the Commerce Clause . Desdune's case never went to trial because the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on May 25 in the unrelated Abbott v. Hicks that the Separate Car Act did not apply to interstate passengers, rendering

1184-516: A devastating economic and material impact on the South, where most combat occurred. The enormous cost of the Confederate war effort took a high toll on the region's economic infrastructure. The direct costs in human capital , government expenditures, and physical destruction totaled $ 3.3 billion. By early 1865, the Confederate dollar had nearly zero value, and the Southern banking system

1332-488: A fair procedure. The Supreme Court has ruled that this clause makes most of the Bill of Rights as applicable to the states as it is to the federal government, as well as to recognize substantive and procedural requirements that state laws must satisfy. The Equal Protection Clause requires each state to provide equal protection under the law to all people, including non-citizens, within its jurisdiction . This clause has been

1480-475: A fine of at most $ 25 or twenty days of jail time. The law did not go uncontested through the legislature. Republican legislator Henry Demas from St John the Baptist Parish challenged the bill as coming from the "ranks of Democratic Senators who pandered to the needs of the lower classes". To him, the bill was not a product of upper-class white citizens but those with no "social or moral standing in

1628-666: A foreign citizenship was considered sufficient cause for revocation of national citizenship. This concept was enshrined in a series of treaties between the United States and other countries (the Bancroft Treaties ). However, the Supreme Court repudiated this concept in Afroyim v. Rusk (1967), as well as Vance v. Terrazas (1980), holding that the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment barred

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1776-514: A foreign country, the right to travel to the seat of government, the right to peaceably assemble and petition the government, the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, and the right to participate in the government's administration. This decision has not been overruled and has been specifically reaffirmed several times. Largely as a result of the narrowness of the Slaughter-House opinion, this clause subsequently lay dormant for well over

1924-630: A foreign power, and this clause of the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized this rule. According to Garrett Epps , professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, "Only one group is not 'subject to the jurisdiction' [of the United States] – accredited foreign diplomats and their families, who can be expelled by the federal government but not arrested or tried." The U.S. Supreme Court stated in Elk v. Wilkins (1884), with respect to

2072-594: A low of $ 80 in 1879. By the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the South was locked into a system of poverty. How much of this failure was caused by the war and by previous reliance on slavery remains the subject of debate among economists and historians. In both the North and South, modernization and industrialization were the focus of the post-war recovery, built on the growth of cities, railroads, factories, and banks and led by Radical Republicans and former Whigs. From its origins, questions existed as to

2220-796: A policy of "malice toward none" announced in his second inaugural address, Lincoln asked voters only to support the Union in the future, regardless of the past. Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade–Davis Bill, which was much more strict than the ten percent plan. Following Lincoln's veto, the Radicals lost support but regained strength after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. Upon President Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Radicals considered Johnson to be an ally, but upon becoming president, he rejected

2368-546: A railroad strike ( Wilson v. New , 1917), as well as federal laws regulating narcotics ( United States v. Doremus , 1919). The Court repudiated, but did not explicitly overrule, the "freedom of contract" line of cases in West Coast Hotel v. Parrish (1937). In its decision the Court stated: The Constitution does not speak of freedom of contract. It speaks of liberty and prohibits the deprivation of liberty without due process of law. In prohibiting that deprivation,

2516-437: A result, a system of sharecropping was developed, in which landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families. Thus, the main structure of the Southern economy changed from an elite minority of landed gentry slaveholders into a tenant farming agriculture system. Historian David W. Blight identified three visions of the social implications of Reconstruction: The Civil War had

2664-555: A status like new territories. Sumner argued that secession had destroyed statehood but the Constitution still extended its authority and its protection over individuals, as in existing U.S. territories . The Republicans sought to prevent Johnson's Southern politicians from "restoring the historical subordination of Negroes". Since slavery was abolished, the Three-fifths Compromise no longer applied to counting

2812-661: A successful conclusion the purposes above mentioned. Relying on the principle of "freedom of contract" the Court struck down a law decreeing maximum hours for workers in a bakery in Lochner v. New York (1905) and struck down a minimum wage law in Adkins v. Children's Hospital (1923). In Meyer v. Nebraska (1923), the Court stated that the "liberty" protected by the Due Process Clause [w]ithout doubt ... denotes not merely freedom from bodily restraint but also

2960-562: A vital role in establishing a free labor economy in the South, protecting freedmen's legal rights, and creating educational and religious institutions. Despite its reluctance to interfere with the institution of slavery, Congress passed the Confiscation Acts to seize Confederates' slaves, providing a precedent for president Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation . Congress later established

3108-548: Is 1877, when the federal government withdrew the last troops stationed in the South as part of the Compromise of 1877. Later dates have also been suggested. Fritzhugh Brundage proposed in 2017 that Reconstruction ended in 1890, when Republicans failed to pass the Lodge Bill to secure voting rights for Black Americans in the South. Heather Cox Richardson argued that same year for a periodization from 1865 until 1920, when

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3256-454: Is a citizen of the United States of America or not, "for the Due Process Clause applies to all "persons" within the United States, including aliens, whether their presence here is lawful, unlawful, temporary, or permanent." The Supreme Court of the United States interprets the clauses broadly, concluding that these clauses provide three protections: procedural due process (in civil and criminal proceedings); substantive due process ; and as

3404-698: Is great danger that   ... the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn them against us—perhaps ruin our fair prospect for Kentucky." After Frémont refused to rescind the emancipation order, Lincoln terminated him from active duty on November 2, 1861. Lincoln was concerned that the border states would secede from the Union if slaves were given their freedom. On May 26, 1862, Union Major General David Hunter emancipated slaves in South Carolina, Georgia , and Florida, declaring all "persons ... heretofore held as slaves   ... forever free". Lincoln, embarrassed by

3552-539: Is not addressed by this amendment. The Supreme Court held in Civil Rights Cases (1883) that the amendment was limited to "state action" and, therefore, did not authorize the Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals or organizations. However, Congress can sometimes reach such discrimination via other parts of the Constitution such as the Commerce Clause which Congress used to enact

3700-620: Is reasonable in relation to its subject and is adopted in the interests of the community is due process. This essential limitation of liberty in general governs freedom of contract in particular. The Court has interpreted the term "liberty" in the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments in Bolling v. Sharpe (1954) broadly: Although the Court has not assumed to define "liberty" with any great precision, that term

3848-481: Is that, through the course of this Court's decisions, it has represented the balance which our Nation, built upon postulates of respect for the liberty of the individual, has struck between that liberty and the demands of organized society. If the supplying of content to this constitutional concept has of necessity been a rational process, it certainly has not been one where judges have felt free to roam where unguided speculation might take them. The balance of which I speak

3996-742: Is the balance struck by this country, having regard to what history teaches are the traditions from which it developed as well as the traditions from which it broke. That tradition is a living thing. A decision of this Court which radically departs from it could not long survive, while a decision which builds on what has survived is likely to be sound. No formula could serve as a substitute, in this area, for judgment and restraint. — Justice John M. Harlan II in his dissenting opinion in Poe v. Ullman (1961). The Due Process Clause has been used to strike down legislation . The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments for example do not prohibit governmental regulation for

4144-823: Is the guarantee of a fair legal process when the government tries to interfere with a person's protected interests in life, liberty, or property, and substantive due process is the guarantee that the fundamental rights of citizens will not be encroached on by government. Furthermore, as observed by Justice John M. Harlan II in his dissenting opinion in Poe v. Ullman , 367 U.S. 497, 541 (1961), quoting Hurtado v. California , 110 U.S. 516, 532 (1884), "the guaranties of due process, though having their roots in Magna Carta 's 'per legem terrae' and considered as procedural safeguards 'against executive usurpation and tyranny', have in this country 'become bulwarks also against arbitrary legislation'." In Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) it

4292-584: The Foreign Affairs Manual , which is published by the State Department , "Despite widespread popular belief , U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities abroad are not part of the United States within the meaning of the [Fourteenth] Amendment." Loss of national citizenship is possible only under the following circumstances: For much of the country's history, voluntary acquisition or exercise of

4440-414: The de facto creation (initially by treaty) of an unorganized Oklahoma Territory . President Lincoln signed two Confiscation Acts into law, the first on August 6, 1861, and the second on July 17, 1862, safeguarding fugitive slaves who crossed from the Confederacy across Union lines and giving them indirect emancipation if their masters continued insurrection against the United States. The laws allowed

4588-597: The 2000 presidential election , Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) regarding same-sex marriage, and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) regarding race-based college admissions. The amendment limits the actions of all state and local officials, and also those acting on behalf of such officials. The amendment's first section includes the Citizenship Clause , Privileges or Immunities Clause , Due Process Clause , and Equal Protection Clause . The Citizenship Clause broadly defines citizenship, superseding

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4736-496: The American Civil War and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States of America into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves . To circumvent these legal achievements,

4884-600: The American Civil War . The amendment was bitterly contested, particularly by the states of the defeated Confederacy , which were forced to ratify it in order to regain representation in Congress. The amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, forming the basis for landmark Supreme Court decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) regarding racial segregation, Loving v. Virginia (1967) regarding interracial marriage , Roe v. Wade (1973) regarding abortion ( overturned in 2022 ), Bush v. Gore (2000) regarding

5032-631: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 —the Supreme Court upheld this approach in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States (1964). U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph P. Bradley commented in the Civil Rights Cases that "individual invasion of individual rights is not the subject-matter of the [Fourteenth] Amendment. It has a deeper and broader scope. It nullifies and makes void all state legislation, and state action of every kind, which impairs

5180-559: The Confederate States Army surrendered and the Southern states repealed secession and accepted the Thirteenth Amendment —most of which happened by December 1865. Lincoln broke with the Radicals in 1864. The Wade–Davis Bill of 1864 passed in Congress by the Radicals was designed to permanently disfranchise the Confederate element in the South. The bill asked the government to grant African American men

5328-496: The Confederate assault on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter , Lincoln declared that "an extraordinary occasion" existed in the South and raised an army to quell "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Over the next four years, 237 named battles were fought between the Union and Confederate armies, resulting in the dissolution of the Confederate States in 1865. During

5476-716: The Hampton Roads Conference . In August 1862, Lincoln met with African American leaders and urged them to colonize some place in Central America . Lincoln planned to free the Southern slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation and he was concerned that freedmen would not be well treated in the United States by Whites in both the North and South. Although Lincoln gave assurances that the United States government would support and protect any colonies that were established for former slaves,

5624-732: The Ku Klux Klan , the White League , and the Red Shirts , engaged in paramilitary insurgency and terrorism to disrupt the efforts of the Reconstruction governments and terrorize Republicans. Congressional anger at President Johnson's repeated attempts to veto radical legislation led to his impeachment , but he was not removed from office. Under Johnson's successor, President Ulysses S. Grant , Radical Republicans passed additional legislation to enforce civil rights, such as

5772-614: The Ku Klux Klan Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 . However, continuing resistance to Reconstruction by Southern whites and its high cost contributed to its losing support in the North during the Grant administration. The 1876 presidential election was marked by widespread Black voter suppression in the South, and the result was close and contested. An Electoral Commission resulted in the Compromise of 1877 , which awarded

5920-542: The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 which outlined the terms in which the rebel states would be readmitted to the Union. Under these acts Republican Congress established military districts in the South and used Army personnel to administer the region until new governments loyal to the Union—that accepted the Fourteenth Amendment and the right of freedmen to vote—could be established. Congress temporarily suspended

6068-501: The Slaughter-House Cases that the right to become a citizen of a state (by residing in that state) "is conferred by the very article under consideration" (emphasis added), rather than by the "clause" under consideration. In McDonald v. Chicago (2010), Justice Clarence Thomas , while concurring with the majority in incorporating the Second Amendment against the states, declared that he reached this conclusion through

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6216-473: The Wade–Davis Bill in opposition, which instead proposed that a majority of voters must pledge that they had never supported the Confederate government and disfranchised all those who had. Lincoln vetoed the Wade–Davis Bill, but it established a lasting conflict between the presidential and congressional visions of reconstruction. In addition to the legal status of the seceded states, Congress debated

6364-410: The federal government nor any state can revoke at will; even undocumented immigrants—"persons", in the language of the amendment—have rights to due process and equal protection of the law. During the original congressional debate over the amendment Senator Jacob M. Howard of Michigan—the author of the Citizenship Clause —described the clause as having the same content, despite different wording, as

6512-432: The " ten percent plan " and vetoed the radical Wade–Davis Bill , which proposed strict conditions for readmission. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, just as fighting was drawing to a close . He was replaced by President Andrew Johnson . Johnson vetoed numerous Radical Republican bills, he pardoned thousands of Confederate leaders, and he allowed Southern states to pass draconian Black Codes that restricted

6660-484: The Amendment are to be construed with this fundamental purpose in mind. Section 1 has been the most frequently litigated part of the amendment, and this amendment in turn has been the most frequently litigated part of the Constitution. The primary author of the Fourteenth Amendment's first section was John Bingham . The Citizenship Clause overruled the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision that black people were not citizens and could not become citizens, nor enjoy

6808-479: The Black community on education, the majority of Blacks had achieved literacy. Sumner soon concluded that "there was no substantial protection for the freedman except in the franchise". This was necessary, he stated, "(1) For his own protection; (2) For the protection of the white Unionist; and (3) For the peace of the country. We put the musket in his hands because it was necessary; for the same reason we must give him

6956-470: The Confederacy. During the war, a war among pro-Union and anti-Union Native Americans had raged. Congress passed a statute that gave the president the authority to suspend the appropriations of any tribe if the tribe is "in a state of actual hostility to the government of the United States ;... and, by proclamation, to declare all treaties with such tribe to be abrogated by such tribe". As

7104-467: The Congress from revoking citizenship. However, it has been argued that Congress can revoke citizenship that it has previously granted to a person not born in the United States. The Privileges or Immunities Clause, which protects the privileges and immunities of national citizenship from interference by the states, was patterned after the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV, which protects

7252-438: The Constitution does not recognize an absolute and uncontrollable liberty. Liberty in each of its phases has its history and connotation. But the liberty safeguarded is liberty in a social organization which requires the protection of law against the evils which menace the health, safety, morals and welfare of the people. Liberty under the Constitution is thus necessarily subject to the restraints of due process, and regulation which

7400-527: The Court said: The historical context in which the Fourteenth Amendment became a part of the Constitution should not be forgotten. Whatever else the framers sought to achieve, it is clear that the matter of primary concern was the establishment of equality in the enjoyment of basic civil and political rights and the preservation of those rights from discriminatory action on the part of the States based on considerations of race or color. [...] [T]he provisions of

7548-902: The Emancipation Proclamation or 1865 with the end of the war". The Reconstruction Era National Historical Park proposed 1861 as a starting date, interpreting Reconstruction as beginning "as soon as the Union captured territory in the Confederacy" at Fort Monroe in Virginia and in the Sea Islands of South Carolina . According to historians Downs and Masur, "Reconstruction began when the first US soldiers arrived in slaveholding territory, and enslaved people escaped from plantations and farms, some of them fleeing into free states, and others trying to find safety with US forces." Soon afterwards, early discourse and experimentation began in earnest regarding Reconstruction policies. The Reconstruction policies provided opportunities to enslaved Gullah populations in

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7696-593: The Fourteenth Amendment also incorporates most of the provisions in the Bill of Rights , which were originally applied against only the federal government, and applies them against the states. The Supreme Court stated in Zadvydas v. Davis (2001) freedom from imprisonment-from government custody, detention, or other forms of physical restraint-lies at the heart of the liberty that the Due Process clause protects. The Due Process clause applies regardless whether one

7844-471: The Fourteenth Amendment wanted these principles enshrined in the Constitution to protect the new Civil Rights Act from being declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and also to prevent a future Congress from altering it by a mere majority vote. This section was also in response to violence against black people within the Southern States . The Joint Committee on Reconstruction found that only

7992-672: The Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause: The 'liberty' mentioned in [the Fourteenth] amendment means not only the right of the citizen to be free from the mere physical restraint of his person, as by incarceration, but the term is deemed to embrace the right of the citizen to be free in the enjoyment of all his faculties, to be free to use them in all lawful ways, to live and work where he will, to earn his livelihood by any lawful calling, to pursue any livelihood or avocation , and for that purpose to enter into all contracts which may be proper, necessary, and essential to his carrying out to

8140-516: The Fourteenth Amendment, a man born within the United States to Chinese citizens who have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States and are carrying out business in the United States—and whose parents were not employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power—was a citizen of the United States. Subsequent decisions have applied the principle to the children of foreign nationals of non-Chinese descent. According to

8288-476: The Ironclad Oath, which would effectively have allowed no former Confederates to vote. Historian Harold Hyman says that in 1866 congressmen "described the oath as the last bulwark against the return of ex-rebels to power, the barrier behind which Southern Unionists and Negroes protected themselves". Radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens proposed, unsuccessfully, that all former Confederates lose

8436-515: The Pierpont government separated the northwestern counties of the state and sought admission as West Virginia .) As additional territory came under Union control, reconstructed governments were established in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Debates over legal reconstruction focused on whether secession was legally valid, the implications of secession for the nature of the seceded states, and

8584-545: The Privileges or Immunities Clause instead of the Due Process Clause. Randy Barnett has referred to Justice Thomas's concurring opinion as a "complete restoration" of the Privileges or Immunities Clause. In Timbs v. Indiana (2019), Justice Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch , in separate concurring opinions, declared the Excessive Fines Clause of the Eighth Amendment was incorporated against

8732-638: The Radical program of Reconstruction. He was on good terms with ex-Confederates in the South and ex- Copperheads in the North. He appointed his own governors and tried to close the Reconstruction process by the end of 1865. Thaddeus Stevens vehemently opposed Johnson's plans for an abrupt end to Reconstruction, insisting that Reconstruction must "revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners .... The foundations of their institutions ... must be broken up and relaid, or all our blood and treasure have been spent in vain." Johnson broke decisively with

8880-641: The Republicans in Congress when he vetoed the Civil Rights Act on March 27, 1866. While Democrats celebrated, the Republicans rallied, passed the bill again, and overrode Johnson's repeat veto. Full-scale political warfare now existed between Johnson (now allied with the Democrats) and the Radical Republicans. Since the war had ended, Congress rejected Johnson's argument that he had the war power to decide what to do. Congress decided it had

9028-712: The Sea Islands who became free overnight on November 7, 1861, after the Battle of Port Royal when all the white residents and slaveholders fled the area after the arrival of the Union. After the Battle of Port Royal, reconstruction policies were implemented under the Port Royal Experiment which were education , landownership , and labor reform. This transition to a free society was called "Rehearsal for Reconstruction." The conventional end of Reconstruction

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9176-492: The South would gain additional seats in Congress. If Blacks were denied the vote and the right to hold office, then only Whites would represent them. Many, including most White Southerners, Northern Democrats , and some Northern Republicans, opposed voting rights for African-Americans. The small fraction of Republican voters opposed to Black suffrage contributed to the defeats of several suffrage measures voted on in most Northern states. Some Northern states that had referendums on

9324-958: The South; some of them were men who had escaped to the North and gained educations, and returned to the South. They did not hold office in numbers representative of their proportion in the population, but often elected Whites to represent them. The question of women's suffrage was also debated but was rejected. Women eventually gained the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. From 1890 to 1908, Southern states passed new state constitutions and laws that disenfranchised most Blacks and tens of thousands of poor Whites with new voter registration and electoral rules. When establishing new requirements such as subjectively administered literacy tests , in some states, they used " grandfather clauses " to enable illiterate Whites to vote. The Five Civilized Tribes that had been relocated to Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ) held Black slaves and signed treaties supporting

9472-404: The Supreme Court explained that, to ascertain whether a process is due process, the first step is to "examine the constitution itself, to see whether this process be in conflict with any of its provisions." In Hurtado v. California (1884), the U.S. Supreme Court said: Due process of law in the [Fourteenth Amendment] refers to that law of the land in each state which derives its authority from

9620-414: The Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which had held that Americans descended from African slaves could not be citizens of the United States. Since the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), the Privileges or Immunities Clause has been interpreted to do very little. The Due Process Clause prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without

9768-427: The Union (derisively called " scalawags " by White Democrats), and Northerners who had migrated to the South (derisively called " carpetbaggers ")—some of whom were returning natives, but were mostly Union veterans—organized to create constitutional conventions. They created new state constitutions to set new directions for Southern states. Congress had to consider how to restore to full status and representation within

9916-424: The Union those Southern states that had declared their independence from the United States and had withdrawn their representation. Suffrage for former Confederates was one of two main concerns. A decision needed to be made whether to allow just some or all former Confederates to vote (and to hold office). The moderates in Congress wanted virtually all of them to vote, but the Radicals resisted. They repeatedly imposed

10064-406: The Union, hostile to loyal Unionists, and enemies of the Freedmen. Radicals used as evidence outbreaks of mob violence against Black people, such as the Memphis riots of 1866 and the New Orleans massacre of 1866 . Radical Republicans demanded a prompt and strong federal response to protect freedmen and curb Southern racism. Stevens and his followers viewed secession as having left the states in

10212-406: The United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment ( Amendment XIV ) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments . Usually considered one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and equal protection under the law and was proposed in response to issues related to formerly enslaved Americans following

10360-460: The United States and subject to its jurisdiction become American citizens at birth. The principal framer John Armor Bingham said during the 39th United States Congress two years before its passing: I find no fault with the introductory clause, which is simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in

10508-432: The United States, and owing no allegiance to any alien power, should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside. Slaughterhouse Cases , 16 Wall. 36, 83 U. S. 73; Strauder v. West Virginia , 100 U. S. 303, 100 U. S. 306. This section contemplates two sources of citizenship, and two sources only: birth and naturalization. The persons declared to be citizens are "all persons born or naturalized in

10656-435: The United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof". The evident meaning of these last words is not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction and owing them direct and immediate allegiance. And the words relate to the time of birth in the one case, as they do to the time of naturalization in the other. Persons not thus subject to

10804-575: The United States. In Elk v. Wilkins (1884), the clause's meaning was tested regarding whether birth in the United States automatically extended national citizenship. The Supreme Court held that Native Americans who voluntarily quit their tribes did not automatically gain national citizenship. The issue was resolved with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 , which granted full U.S. citizenship to indigenous peoples. The Fourteenth Amendment provides that children born in

10952-596: The ability to vote of approximately 10,000 to 15,000 former Confederate officials and senior officers, while constitutional amendments gave full citizenship to all African Americans, and suffrage to the adult men. With the power to vote, freedmen began participating in politics. While many enslaved people were illiterate, educated Blacks (including fugitive slaves ) moved down from the North to aid them, and natural leaders also stepped forward. They elected White and Black men to represent them in constitutional conventions. A Republican coalition of freedmen, Southerners supportive of

11100-415: The administration of Reconstruction under presidential control, rather than that of the increasingly unsympathetic Radical Congress. On March 3, 1862, Lincoln installed a loyalist Democrat, Senator Andrew Johnson, as military governor with the rank of brigadier general in his home state of Tennessee. In May 1862, Lincoln appointed Edward Stanly military governor of the coastal region of North Carolina with

11248-521: The adversary [Radicals in Congress], and set an example the other states will follow." Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, leaders of the Radical Republicans, were initially hesitant to enfranchise the largely illiterate freedmen. Sumner preferred at first impartial requirements that would have imposed literacy restrictions on Blacks and Whites. He believed that he would not succeed in passing legislation to disenfranchise illiterate Whites who already had

11396-461: The amendment. The Reconstruction Amendments and thus the Fourteenth Amendment "were specifically designed as an expansion of federal power and an intrusion on state sovereignty." The Reconstruction Amendments affected the constitutional division of power between U.S. state governments and the federal government of the United States , for "The Fourteenth Amendment 'expand[ed] federal power at the expense of state autonomy' and thus 'fundamentally altered

11544-498: The author of the Civil Rights Act, asserted that both the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment would confer citizenship to children born to foreign nationals in the United States. Senator Edgar Cowan of Pennsylvania had a decidedly different opinion. Some scholars dispute whether the Citizenship Clause should apply to the children of unauthorized immigrants today, as "the problem   ... did not exist at

11692-460: The balance of power, giving the Republicans two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, and enough votes to overcome Johnson's vetoes. They moved to impeach Johnson because of his constant attempts to thwart Radical Reconstruction measures, by using the Tenure of Office Act . Johnson was acquitted by one vote, but he lost the influence to shape Reconstruction policy. In 1867, Congress passed

11840-487: The balance of state and federal power struck by the Constitution ' " ( Seminole Tribe of Fla. v. Florida , 517 U. S. 44, 59 (1996); see also Ex parte Virginia , 100 U. S. 339, 345 (1880). ). Section 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

11988-441: The basis for many decisions rejecting discrimination against people belonging to various groups. The second, third, and fourth sections of the amendment are seldom litigated. However, the second section's reference to "rebellion, or other crime" has been invoked as a constitutional ground for felony disenfranchisement . It was held, under Trump v. Anderson (2024), that only the federal government can enforce section three and not

12136-410: The benefits of citizenship. Some members of Congress voted for the Fourteenth Amendment in order to eliminate doubts about the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 , or to ensure that no subsequent Congress could later repeal or alter the main provisions of that Act. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 had granted citizenship to all people born in the United States if they were not subject to

12284-482: The books. Although most Blacks opposed the law, it had strong support from Whites. An editorial in The Daily Picayune of New Orleans spoke of "almost unanimous demand on the party of White people of the State for the enactment of the law" which would "increase the comfort for the traveling public". The editorial also argued that it would put Louisiana in line with other Southern states. In 1891, under

12432-486: The children of ambassadors and foreign ministers were to be excluded. Senator James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin asserted that all Native Americans were subject to United States jurisdiction, so that the phrase "Indians not taxed" would be preferable, but Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lyman Trumbull and Howard disputed this, arguing that the federal government did not have full jurisdiction over Native American tribes, which govern themselves and make treaties with

12580-432: The colonies were able to remain self-sufficient. Frederick Douglass , a prominent 19th-century American civil rights activist, criticized Lincoln by stating that he was "showing all his inconsistencies, his pride of race and blood, his contempt for Negroes and his canting hypocrisy". African Americans, according to Douglass, wanted citizenship and civil rights rather than colonies. Historians are unsure if Lincoln gave up on

12728-506: The community". Despite some opposition, the Separate Car Act passed the Louisiana State Senate by 23 to 6. Paul Trevigne , a Louisianan African American , said the law was not practical. He felt that this "force class legislation " would fail in the near term because it did not take into account the lives of people living in a cosmopolitan Louisiana. "[F]uture generations would be ashamed", he said, to see such laws on

12876-648: The confiscation of lands for colonization from those who aided and supported the rebellion. However, these laws had limited effect as they were poorly funded by Congress and poorly enforced by Attorney General Edward Bates . In August 1861, Major General John C. Frémont , Union commander of the Western Department, declared martial law in Missouri , confiscated Confederate property, and emancipated their slaves. Lincoln immediately ordered Frémont to rescind his emancipation declaration, stating: "I think there

13024-475: The congressional debate over the amendment, as well as the customs and understandings prevalent at that time. Some of the major issues that have arisen about this clause are the extent to which it included Native Americans , its coverage of non-citizens legally present in the United States when they have a child, whether the clause allows revocation of citizenship, and whether the clause applies to illegal immigrants . The historian Eric Foner , who has explored

13172-552: The direction of Louis Martinet, a group of activists from New Orleans set up the Citizens Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Act in order to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The first case the committee decided to test was Daniel Desdunes , son of Citizens Committee co-founder Rodolphe Desdunes , in 1892. On February 24, Desdunes bought a first-class ticket and boarded

13320-564: The due process clause has been held by the Court applicable to matters of substantive law as well as to matters of procedure." Justice Louis Brandeis observed in his concurrence opinion in Whitney v. California , 274 U.S. 357, 373 (1927), that "[d]espite arguments to the contrary which had seemed to me persuasive, it is settled that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies to matters of substantive law as well as to matters of procedure. Thus all fundamental rights comprised within

13468-432: The earlier Civil Rights Act of 1866, namely, that it excludes Native Americans who maintain their tribal ties and "persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers". According to historian Glenn W. LaFantasie of Western Kentucky University , "A good number of his fellow senators supported his view of the citizenship clause." Others also agreed that

13616-484: The early failure to prevent violence, corruption, starvation, disease, and other problems. Some consider the Union's policy toward freed slaves as inadequate and its policy toward former slaveholders as too lenient. However, Reconstruction is credited with restoring the federal Union, limiting reprisals against the South, and establishing a legal framework for racial equality via the constitutional rights to national birthright citizenship , due process , equal protection of

13764-638: The election of Warren G. Harding to the presidency marked the end of a national sentiment in favor of using government power to promote equality. In 2024, Manisha Sinha periodized Reconstruction from 1860—when Abraham Lincoln won office as a president opposed to slavery—until 1920, when America ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution affirming the right of women to vote, which Sinha called "the last Reconstruction amendment" because it drew upon

13912-412: The election to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes on the understanding that federal troops would be withdrawn from the South, effectively bringing Reconstruction to an end. Post-Civil War efforts to enforce federal civil rights protections in the South ended in 1890 with the failure of the Lodge Bill . Historians continue to disagree about the legacy of Reconstruction. Criticism of Reconstruction focuses on

14060-488: The end of formal hostilities between the North and South. However, in his landmark 1988 monograph Reconstruction , historian Eric Foner proposed 1863, starting with the Emancipation Proclamation , Port Royal Experiment , and the earnest debate of Reconstruction policies during the Civil War. By 2017, among scholars it was "widely understood" in the words of Luke Harlow, that Reconstruction started in either "1863 with

14208-625: The expansion of national consciousness that marked Reconstruction . ... Birthright citizenship is one legacy of the titanic struggle of the Reconstruction era to create a genuine democracy grounded in the principle of equality. Garrett Epps also stresses, like Eric Foner, the equality aspect of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its centerpiece is the idea that citizenship in the United States is universal —that we are one nation, with one class of citizens, and that citizenship extends to everyone born here. Citizens have rights that neither

14356-502: The extinction of slavery in twenty years". On March 26, 1862, Lincoln met with Senator Charles Sumner and recommended that a special joint session of Congress be convened to discuss giving financial aid to any border states who initiated a gradual emancipation plan. In April 1862, the joint session of Congress met; however, the border states were not interested and did not make any response to Lincoln or any congressional emancipation proposal. Lincoln advocated compensated emancipation during

14504-531: The former Confederate states could be readmitted to the Union. Constitutional conventions held throughout the South gave Black men the right to vote. New state governments were established by a coalition of freedmen, supportive white Southerners , and Northern transplants . They were opposed by " Redeemers ," who sought to restore white supremacy and reestablish the Democratic Party 's control of Southern governments and society. Violent groups, including

14652-481: The former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control black people and to discourage or prevent them from voting. Throughout the war, the Union was confronted with the issue of how to administer areas it captured and how to handle the steady stream of slaves who were escaping to Union lines. In many cases, the United States Army played

14800-450: The former Confederate states? What was the citizenship status of the leaders of the Confederacy? What was the citizenship and suffrage status of freedmen? After the war ended, President Andrew Johnson gave back most of the land to the former White slave owners. By 1866, the faction of Radical Republicans led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner was convinced that Johnson's Southern appointees were disloyal to

14948-442: The franchise." The support for voting rights was a compromise between moderate and Radical Republicans. The Republicans believed that the best way for men to get political experience was to be able to vote and to participate in the political system. They passed laws allowing all male freedmen to vote. In 1867, Black men voted for the first time. Over the course of Reconstruction, more than 1,500 African Americans held public office in

15096-510: The ground that a loyal Negro is more worthy than a disloyal White man." As president in 1865, Johnson wrote to the man he appointed as governor of Mississippi, recommending: "If you could extend the elective franchise to all persons of color who can read the Constitution in English and write their names, and to all persons of color who own real estate valued at least two hundred and fifty dollars, and pay taxes thereon, you would completely disarm

15244-501: The idea of African American colonization at the end of 1863 or if he actually planned to continue this policy up until 1865. Starting in March 1862, in an effort to forestall Reconstruction by the Radicals in Congress, Lincoln installed military governors in certain rebellious states under Union military control. Although the states would not be recognized by the Radicals until an undetermined time, installation of military governors kept

15392-458: The inherent and reserved powers of the state, exerted within the limits of those fundamental principles of liberty and justice which lie at the base of all our civil and political institutions, and the greatest security for which resides in the right of the people to make their own laws, and alter them at their pleasure. Due process has not been reduced to any formula; its content cannot be determined by reference to any code. The best that can be said

15540-405: The jurisdiction of the United States at the time of birth cannot become so afterward except by being naturalized, either individually, as by proceedings under the naturalization acts , or collectively, as by the force of a treaty by which foreign territory is acquired. There are varying interpretations of the original intent of Congress and of the ratifying states, based on statements made during

15688-482: The language of your Constitution itself, a natural-born citizen; but, sir, I may be allowed to say further that I deny that the Congress of the United States ever had the power, or color of power to say that any man born within the jurisdiction of the United States, not owing a foreign allegiance , is not and shall not be a citizen of the United States. [emphasis added] At the time of the amendment's passage, President Andrew Johnson and three senators, including Trumbull,

15836-512: The laws , and male suffrage regardless of race. The Reconstruction era has typically been dated from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 until the withdrawal of the final remaining federal troops stationed in the Southern United States in 1877, though a few other periodization schemes have also been proposed by historians. In the twentieth century, most scholars of the Reconstruction era began their review in 1865, with

15984-502: The leaders declined the offer of colonization. Many free Blacks had been opposed to colonization plans in the past because they wanted to remain in the United States. Lincoln persisted in his colonization plan in the belief that emancipation and colonization were both part of the same program. By April 1863, Lincoln was successful in sending Black colonists to Haiti as well as 453 to Chiriqui in Central America; however, none of

16132-500: The legal and social inequality of the races in the United States. The end of the war was accompanied by a large migration of newly freed people to the cities, where they were relegated to the lowest paying jobs, such as unskilled and service labor. Men worked as rail workers, rolling and lumber mills workers, and hotel workers. Black women were largely confined to domestic work employed as cooks, maids, and child nurses, or in hotels and laundries. The large population of slave artisans during

16280-670: The legal consequences for Confederate veterans and others who had engaged in "insurrection and rebellion" against the government and the legal rights of those freed from slavery. These debates resulted in the Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution. During the Civil War, the Radical Republican leaders argued that slavery and the Slave Power had to be permanently destroyed. Moderates said this could be easily accomplished as soon as

16428-404: The legal significance of the Civil War, whether secession had actually occurred, and what measures, if any, were necessary to restore the governments of the Confederate States. For example, throughout the conflict, the United States government recognized the legitimacy of a unionist government in Virginia led by Francis Harrison Pierpont out of Wheeling . (This recognition was rendered moot when

16576-558: The legitimate method of their readmission to the Union. The first plan for legal reconstruction was introduced by Lincoln in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, the so-called " ten percent plan " under which a loyal unionist state government would be established when ten percent of its 1860 voters pledged an oath of allegiance to the Union, with a complete pardon for those who pledged such an oath. By 1864, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas had established fully functioning Unionist governments under this plan. However, Congress passed

16724-567: The light-skinned Plessy was legally Black. The conductor was told by Plessy that he was colored and the conductor had him arrested and charged with violation of the law. The case was brought before John Howard Ferguson —the same judge who had argued the law could not apply to interstate travel in Abbott v. Hicks . Plessy's lawyers argued on the basis of the 13th and 14th Amendments that their client's rights had been violated. Ferguson ruled that Louisiana could regulate such actions and that Plessy

16872-538: The order, rescinded Hunter's declaration and canceled the emancipation. On April 16, 1862, Lincoln signed a bill into law outlawing slavery in Washington, D.C., and freeing the estimated 3,500 slaves in the city. On June 19, 1862, he signed legislation outlawing slavery in all U.S. territories. On July 17, 1862, under the authority of the Confiscation Acts and an amended Force Bill of 1795, he authorized

17020-402: The population of Blacks. After the 1870 Census, the South would gain numerous additional representatives in Congress, based on the full population of freedmen. One Illinois Republican expressed a common fear that if the South were allowed to simply restore its previous established powers, that the "reward of treason will be an increased representation". The election of 1866 decisively changed

17168-524: The prewar period did not translate into a large number of free artisans during Reconstruction. The dislocations had a severe negative impact on the Black population, with a large amount of sickness and death. During the war, Lincoln experimented with land reform by giving land to African-Americans in South Carolina . Having lost their enormous investment in slaves, plantation owners had minimal capital to pay freedmen workers to bring in crops. As

17316-410: The primary authority to decide how Reconstruction should proceed, because the Constitution stated the United States had to guarantee each state a republican form of government . The Radicals insisted that meant Congress decided how Reconstruction should be achieved. The issues were multiple: Who should decide, Congress or the president? How should republicanism operate in the South? What was the status of

17464-495: The privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, or which injures them in life, liberty or property without due process of law, or which denies to any of them the equal protection of the laws." The Radical Republicans who advanced the Thirteenth Amendment hoped to ensure broad civil and human rights for the newly freed people—but its scope was disputed before it even went into effect. The framers of

17612-464: The privileges and immunities of national citizenship included only those rights that "owe their existence to the Federal government, its National character, its Constitution, or its laws." The Court recognized few such rights, including access to seaports and navigable waterways, the right to run for federal office, the protection of the federal government while on the high seas or in the jurisdiction of

17760-543: The privileges and immunities of state citizenship from interference by other states. In the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), the Supreme Court concluded that the Constitution recognized two separate types of citizenship—"national citizenship" and "state citizenship"—and the Court held that the Privileges or Immunities Clause prohibits states from interfering only with privileges and immunities possessed by virtue of national citizenship. The Court concluded that

17908-478: 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. Section 1 of the amendment formally defines United States citizenship and also protects various civil rights from being abridged or denied by any state or state actor . Abridgment or denial of those civil rights by private persons

18056-460: The public welfare. Instead, they only direct the process by which such regulation occurs. As the Court has held before, such due process "demands only that the law shall not be unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious, and that the means selected shall have a real and substantial relation to the object sought to be attained." Despite the foregoing citation the Due Process Clause enables the Supreme Court to exercise its power of judicial review , "because

18204-558: The purpose of the Citizenship Clause and the words "persons born or naturalized in the United States" and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof", in this context: The main object of the opening sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this Court, as to the citizenship of free negroes ( Scott v. Sandford , 19 How. 393), and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black , and whether formerly slaves or not, born or naturalized in

18352-417: The question of U.S. birthright citizenship in its relation to other countries, argues that: Many things claimed as uniquely American—a devotion to individual freedom, for example, or social opportunity—exist in other countries. But birthright citizenship does make the United States (along with Canada) unique in the developed world. ... Birthright citizenship is one expression of the commitment to equality and

18500-873: The rank of brigadier general. Stanly resigned almost a year later when he angered Lincoln by closing two schools for Black children in New Bern . After Lincoln installed Brigadier General George Foster Shepley as military governor of Louisiana in May 1862, Shepley sent two anti-slavery representatives, Benjamin Flanders and Michael Hahn , elected in December 1862, to the House, which capitulated and voted to seat them. In July 1862, Lincoln installed Colonel John S. Phelps as military governor of Arkansas, though he resigned soon after due to poor health. Fourteenth Amendment to

18648-536: The rate of damage in smaller towns was much lower. Farms were in disrepair, and the prewar stock of horses, mules, and cattle was much depleted. Forty percent of Southern livestock had been killed. The South's farms were not highly mechanized, but the value of farm implements and machinery according to the 1860 Census was $ 81 million and was reduced by 40% by 1870. The transportation infrastructure lay in ruins, with little railroad or riverboat service available to move crops and animals to market. Railroad mileage

18796-405: The recruitment of freed slaves into the U.S. Army and seizure of any Confederate property for military purposes. In an effort to keep border states in the Union, Lincoln, as early as 1861, designed gradual compensated emancipation programs paid for by government bonds. Lincoln desired Delaware , Maryland , Kentucky , and Missouri to "adopt a system of gradual emancipation which should work

18944-693: 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. However, the Court did uphold some economic regulation, such as state Prohibition laws ( Mugler v. Kansas , 1887), laws declaring maximum hours for mine workers ( Holden v. Hardy , 1898), laws declaring maximum hours for female workers ( Muller v. Oregon , 1908), and President Woodrow Wilson 's intervention in

19092-541: The right to vote and that anyone who willingly gave weapons to the fight against the United States should be denied the right to vote. The bill required voters, fifty-one percent of White males, to take the Ironclad Oath swearing that they had never supported the Confederacy or been one of its soldiers. This oath also entailed having them to swear a loyalty to the Constitution and the Union before they could have state constitutional meetings. Lincoln blocked it. Pursuing

19240-412: The right to vote for five years. The compromise that was reached disenfranchised many Confederate civil and military leaders. No one knows how many temporarily lost the vote, but one estimate placed the number as high as 10,000 to 15,000. However, Radical politicians took up the task at the state level. In Tennessee alone, over 80,000 former Confederates were disenfranchised. Second, and closely related,

19388-400: The rights of freedmen. His actions outraged many Northerners and stoked fears that the Southern elite would regain its political power. Radical Republican candidates swept to power in the 1866 midterm elections, gaining large majorities in both houses of Congress . In 1867 and 1868, the Radical Republicans passed the Reconstruction Acts over Johnson's vetoes, setting out the terms by which

19536-432: The states through the Privileges or Immunities Clause instead of the Due Process Clause. Due process deals with the administration of justice and thus the due process clause acts as a safeguard from arbitrary denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside the sanction of law. The Supreme Court has described due process consequently as "the protection of the individual against arbitrary action." In 1855,

19684-458: The states. The fourth section was held, in Perry v. United States (1935), to prohibit Congress from abrogating a contract of debt incurred by a prior Congress. The fifth section gives Congress the power to enforce the amendment's provisions by "appropriate legislation"; however, under City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), this power may not be used to contradict a Supreme Court decision interpreting

19832-534: The subject limited the ability of their own small populations of Blacks to vote. Lincoln had supported a middle position: to allow some Black men to vote, especially U.S. Army veterans. Johnson also believed that such service should be rewarded with citizenship. Lincoln proposed giving the vote to "the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks". In 1864, Governor Johnson said: "The better class of them will go to work and sustain themselves, and that class ought to be allowed to vote, on

19980-600: The term liberty are protected by the Federal Constitution from invasion by the States." The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applies only against the states, but it is otherwise textually identical to the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment , which applies against the federal government; both clauses have been interpreted to encompass identical doctrines of procedural due process and substantive due process . Procedural due process

20128-517: The test moot . For their second attempt, the group found Homer Plessy , a mostly white " octoroon ", who was still considered a "negro" under Louisiana law. On June 7, 1892 Plessy purchased a first-class ticket to take him from New Orleans to Covington on the East Louisiana Railroad , this time both destinations being within the state. Plessy boarded the "white carriage" where the conductor had been informed ahead of time that

20276-430: The third component of the right to travel. Writing for the majority in the Slaughter-House Cases , Justice Miller explained that one of the privileges conferred by this Clause "is that a citizen of the United States can, of his own volition, become a citizen of any State of the Union by a bona fide residence therein, with the same rights as other citizens of that State." (emphasis added) Justice Miller actually wrote in

20424-468: The time". In the 21st century, Congress has occasionally discussed passing a statute or a constitutional amendment to reduce the practice of " birth tourism ", in which a foreign national gives birth in the United States to gain the child's citizenship. The clause's meaning with regard to a child of immigrants was tested in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898). The Supreme Court held that under

20572-473: The vehicle for the incorporation of the Bill of Rights . Beginning with Allgeyer v. Louisiana (1897), the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the Due Process Clause as providing substantive protection to private contracts, thus prohibiting a variety of social and economic regulation; this principle was referred to as " freedom of contract ". A unanimous court held with respect to the noun "liberty" mentioned in

20720-541: The vote. In the South, many poor Whites were illiterate as there was almost no public education before the war. In 1880, for example, the White illiteracy rate was about 25% in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia, and as high as 33% in North Carolina. This compares with the 9% national rate, and a Black rate of illiteracy that was over 70% in the South. By 1900, however, with emphasis within

20868-405: The war zone ensured the system would be ruined at war's end. Restoring the infrastructure—especially the railroad system—became a high priority for Reconstruction state governments. Over a quarter of Southern White men of military age—the backbone of the White workforce—died during the war, leaving their families destitute, and per capita income for White Southerners declined from $ 125 in 1857 to

21016-405: The war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that "all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate territory "are, and henceforward shall be free." The Civil War had immense social implications for the United States. Emancipation had altered the legal status of 3.5 million persons, threatened the end of the plantation economy of the South, and provoked questions regarding

21164-468: The withdrawal of federal troops from the South, the Democratic Party came back to power. There began a process of "renegotiating the definitions of 'equal rights' in debates over post-Civil War amendments". Legislators proposed the Separate Car Bill which segregated Blacks from Whites in separate but equal conditions on train cars. Violations of the law were a misdemeanor crime punishable by

21312-732: Was guilty as charged. The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld this decision. Finally, the case ended in the Supreme Court of the United States in Plessy v. Ferguson with the judgment being upheld, leading to the judicial sanction of " separate but equal ". This situation lasted for decades. Reconstruction era of the United States The Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed

21460-439: Was in collapse by the war's end. Where scarce Union dollars could not be obtained, residents resorted to a barter system. The Confederate States in 1861 had 297 towns and cities, with a total population of 835,000 people; of these, 162, with 681,000 people, were at some point occupied by Union forces. Eleven cities were destroyed or severely damaged by military action, including Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond, though

21608-468: Was located mostly in rural areas; over two-thirds of the South's rails, bridges, rail yards, repair shops, and rolling stock were in areas reached by Union armies, which systematically destroyed what they could. Even in untouched areas, the lack of maintenance and repair, the absence of new equipment, the heavy over-use, and the deliberate relocation of equipment by the Confederates from remote areas to

21756-553: Was observed: "Although a literal reading of the Clause might suggest that it governs only the procedures by which a State may deprive persons of liberty, for at least 105 years, since Mugler v. Kansas , 123 U. S. 623, 660-661 (1887), the Clause has been understood to contain a substantive component as well, one "barring certain government actions regardless of the fairness of the procedures used to implement them." Daniels v. Williams , 474 U. S. 327, 331 (1986)." The Due Process Clause of

21904-426: Was the issue of whether the 4 million freedmen were to be received as citizens: Would they be able to vote? If they were to be fully counted as citizens, some sort of representation for apportionment of seats in Congress had to be determined. Before the war, the population of slaves had been counted as three-fifths of a corresponding number of free Whites. By having 4 million freedmen counted as full citizens,

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