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Course: Constitution 101 Sandbox > Unit 6
Lesson 1: 8.1: The Fourteenth Amendment—An Overview- The 14th Amendment | Constitution 101
- Did the 14th Amendment represent a “Second Founding” for America?
- Why is the 14th Amendment important today?
- Info Brief: The Fourteenth Amendment—Big Ideas
- What was Carolene Products Footnote Four?
- Primary Source: United States v. Carolene Products Co. (1938)
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Info Brief: The Fourteenth Amendment—Big Ideas
Google ClassroomRead the big ideas found in the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Fourteenth Amendment wrote the Declaration of Independence’s promise of freedom and equality into the Constitution. It transformed the Constitution forever. And, as we discussed in Unit #7, it’s at the heart of what many scholars refer to as America’s “Second Founding.”
But the Fourteenth Amendment isn’t just an important accomplishment in history; it is the focus of many of the most important constitutional debates (and Supreme Court cases) today. In many ways, the history of the modern Supreme Court is largely a history of modern-day battles over the Fourteenth Amendment’s meaning. So many of the constitutional cases that you care about today turns on the text of this transformational amendment.
We’ll turn to the Fourth Amendment story and its modern-day importance later. But for now, let’s quickly review the Fourteenth Amendment’s four big features—the four ways in which the amendment’s powerful language transformed the Constitution forever.
| Big Idea | Impact |
|---|---|
| Birthright Citizenship | Dred Scott is overturned, African Americans did have rights that the white man was bound to respect, and if you’re born on American soil, you’re an American citizen. |
| Equality | The original Constitution was silent on the issue of equality, but, with the Fourteenth Amendment, the Declaration of Independence’s promise (that “all men” and women “are created equal”) is now written into the Constitution. |
| Freedom | When it was framed and ratified by the Founding generation, the original Bill of Rights was limited to abuses by the national government. However, with the Fourteenth Amendment, now the Constitution now protects those in the United States from abuses of key rights by the states—including those written into the Bill of Rights like free speech and religious liberty. |
| National power over civil rights | Congress is now given the power to enforce the protections enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Reconstruction Amendments are the first set of constitutional amendments to expand the reach of national power—rather than restrict it (as, for instance, the Bill of Rights did). So, Congress has more power than before. |