Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to their jurisdiction are citizens of the United States and the state in which they reside. No state should enact or enforce laws that restrict the privileges and benefits of United States citizens; nor can any state deprive any person of their life, liberty, or property without due process of law or deny to any person within their jurisdiction the equal protection of the law.

Section 2. Representatives are distributed among individual states in accordance with the size of their population, which is determined by counting all residents of the state, excluding tax-free Indians. But if, when electing the President and Vice President of the United States, congressional executives, state officials or members of the state legislature are denied voting rights to any male citizen who is twenty-one years old or more, who are citizens Of the United States, or this right is limited in any way other than for participating in an uprising or other crime, the rate of representation from that state should be reduced in such a prop tion, the number of such male citizens relates to the total number of male citizens of such State, under the age of twenty-one years.

Section 3. No person may be a senator or representative in Congress, or an elector of the President or Vice President, or hold any position, civil or military, in the service of the United States or in the service of any state if, having previously accepted an oath as a member of Congress or an official of the United States, or a member of the legislature of any state, or an executive or judicial officer of any state that will support the Constitution of the United States, then inyalo engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress can remove this limitation by two-thirds of the votes of each house.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States authorized by law, including debts incurred to pay pensions and rewards for service in the suppression of rebellion or rebellion, is not called into question. But neither the United States, nor any state should accept any obligations or pay debts related to assisting the rebellion or rebellion against the United States, or recognize any claims related to the loss or release of any slave; All such debts, obligations and claims must be considered illegal and invalid.

Section 5. Congress has the right to enforce this article by enacting relevant legislation.

Original text

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 thereby they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any 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 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature therefore, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thus. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

- The Constitution of the United States of America Historical sources in Russian on the Internet (Electronic Library of the History Department of Moscow State University named after MV Lomonosov); 14th Amendment / Cornell University Law School, LII

This amendment became one of the most democratic in the history of American constitutionalism, as it not only proclaimed the equality of all citizens regardless of skin color, but also provided for punishment of states for violation of these requirements by reducing the norm of representation in the US Congress . Claims related to the loss or release of a slave were declared null and void.

At the same time, the amendment prohibited the holding of public office by persons who had previously taken the oath of allegiance to the US Constitution and subsequently participated in an armed rebellion against the US government or who had “helped or supported” the enemies of the United States. The corresponding restriction could be removed by Congress by two-thirds of the votes in each house.

• Eisenstadt vs. Byrd
• Brown vs. Board of Education
• Griswold vs Connecticut
• Loving vs Virginia
• Lawrence vs Texas
• Stanley v. Georgia
• Plessis vs Ferguson
• Row vs Wade
• Obergefell vs. Hodges

• https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fourteenth_amendment_0