Fourteenth Amendment passed --> ratified (8 giug 1866 anni – 9 lugl 1868 anni)

Descrizione:

• It enshrined birthright citizenship in the Constitution, making the definition of
citizenship permanently a national responsibility (rather than a state matter).
• It nationalized the protection of rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. States were
now forbidden from violating those rights, when previously the rights were only
protected from violation by the federal government.
• It provided for “equal protection of the law” for all American citizens (although
the meaning of this clause would be contested over the course of the following
century).
• It penalized states for denying to any male citizen the right to vote by reducing the
state’s representation in Congress. By imposing a penalty only when male citizens were denied the right to vote, the amendment made the first reference to gender in the Constitution.
• It banned former Rebels who held prewar political office from holding office again.
• It prohibited payments to former slaveholders in compensation for the loss of their
slaves after Emancipation.
• It prohibited the payment of any debts amassed by the Confederacy to fight the
war, but it guaranteed the payment of all such debts incurred by the Union.

Documents: #016, #023

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