Also known as: 14th Amendment · Fourteenth Amend.
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
The constitutional amendment ratified in 1868 that prohibits states from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, from denying any person the equal protection of the laws, and from abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. It also empowers Congress to enforce these protections by appropriate legislation and serves as the vehicle for incorporating most Bill of Rights guarantees against the states.
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Fabian Flynn, a white resident of State X, seeks to marry Freya Freeman, a Black resident of the same state. State X enforces a statute that criminalizes and refuses to recognize marriages between persons of different races. The couple petitions the state court to declare the statute invalid and to issue a marriage license. The court must determine whether the prohibition infringes a fundamental liberty interest protected against state action.
Forrest Falconer is prosecuted in state court after officers enter his home without a warrant and seize documents. The documents form the centerpiece of the state's case. Falconer moves to suppress the evidence on the ground that the search violated the Fourth Amendment. The trial court must decide whether the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches binds the state and requires exclusion of the fruits of the violation.
Fatou Fall, a naturalized citizen, votes in a foreign election. A federal statute automatically revokes her United States citizenship upon that act. Fall sues to retain her citizenship, arguing that the government may not strip citizenship without her consent. The court must decide whether involuntary expatriation under the statute violates the citizenship protections secured by the amendment.
Francesca Fowler moves from State A to State B and applies for welfare benefits. State B limits new residents to the benefit level they would have received in their former state and imposes a one-year waiting period for full benefits. Fowler challenges the restriction as an unconstitutional burden on her right to travel. The court must decide whether the classification denies equal protection to newly arrived citizens.
Floyd Franklin, a Black student, is denied admission to a public school attended by white children under a state statute requiring racial separation. Franklin sues the school district, claiming the separation deprives him of equal educational opportunity. The court must decide whether the state-mandated segregation violates the guarantee of equal protection.
Frostline Textiles serves as trustee of a common trust fund. The bank publishes notice of an accounting proceeding only in a local newspaper, without sending individual notice to known beneficiaries. Beneficiary Freeman Engineering objects that the notice is constitutionally inadequate. The court must decide whether the publication method satisfies the requirements of due process before the accounting can bind absent beneficiaries.
The Due Process Clause incorporates most Bill of Rights guarantees against the states. Nearly every criminal-procedure protection, including the exclusionary rule, the privilege against self-incrimination, and the right to a jury trial in serious cases, now restrains state actors through this mechanism.
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Racial classifications receive the most rigid scrutiny and cannot be upheld absent a legitimate purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination. State laws that classify on the basis of race therefore face a heavy presumption of invalidity.
…of certain areas or zones of privacy, does exist under the Constitution. This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment's concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment's reservation of rights to the people, is…
…according to race. This segregation was alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment
…do not constitute a taking of that property within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment
…Law. The New York Court of Appeals considered and overruled objections that the statutory notice contravenes requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment
…37 U. Chi. L. Rev. 665 (1970). 9. Plumb, Illegal Enforcement of the Law, 24 Cornell L. Q. 337 (1939). 10. Schaefer, The
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Congress may not involuntarily revoke United States citizenship, whether native-born or naturalized, absent the citizen's consent. Automatic loss of citizenship for acts such as voting in a foreign election therefore violates the amendment.
The right to travel includes the right of newly arrived residents to equal treatment with longer-term residents. State laws that limit welfare benefits for new arrivals or impose waiting periods therefore violate equal protection and privileges-or-immunities principles.
Due process requires a reasonable method of informing interested parties of the proceeding and affording them an opportunity to be heard. Publication alone is insufficient when the names and addresses of beneficiaries are known to the trustee.
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