Unit VI Lesson 7

Equal Protection and the 14th Amendment

Essential Question:

• What are the basic civil rights and liberties of Americans?

• How have significant decisions of the Supreme Court affected our basic rights?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of court decisions as instruments of social change?

Selective

Incorporation

1868

The 14th Amendment- 1) Grants citizenship to any person born in the U.S. regardless of race

Property

Dred Scott

Dred Scott v Sanford

“Citizenship”

1857

“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”

Clause

Selective

Clause

The 14th Amendment- 2) Prohibits STATE governments from

depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law (“Due Process Clause”; basis for “incorporation” of the Bill of Rights)

Legal

The 14th Amendment- 3) Grants equal protection under the law to all Americans (“Equal Protection Clause”; States and the National government

can’t make laws that affect people differently because of their race, age, gender, etc.)

“Equal Protection Clause”

“Under the Law”

1789

EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE

“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the

United States”

This passage from the 14th Amendment has been used by courts as a basis for:

A.Incorporation of the Bill of Rights

B.Application of the 1st Amendment to the federal government

C.Denying the right to vote to minorities

D.Restricting the practice of corporal punishment for federal crimes

In the Constitution the concept of equal protection of the law is referred to in:

A.The Preamble

B.The 2nd, 4th, and 6th Amendments

C.Article III

D.The 14th Amendment

Following the Civil War the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution was designed to overturn:

A.Dred Scott v. Sanford

B.Plessy v. Ferguson

C.The Emancipation Proclamation

D.The Civil Rights Act of 1964