History of the United States I / Unit 17 USH1 2406 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Amendment That Answered a Decision
The idea
The Fourteenth Amendment holds that 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. It forbids any state to abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens, to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or to deny equal protection of the laws. It was drafted in eighteen sixty-six for one purpose above others, which was to make Taney's holding impossible to restate.
In practice
Citizenship redefined by the fact of birth, which is a test no court can narrow and no legislature can revise.
Where people slip
Notice the method. The Radicals did not argue that Dred Scott was wrongly decided. They accepted that it was the law and then changed the law it interpreted, which is the only remedy the system provides against a constitutional ruling. Unit 16 entry 2271 carries the full text and the debt clause. This pairing, one decision and one amendment, is the single most examinable relationship in the theme.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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