Talk:Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
From Academic Kids
An event mentioned in this article is a July 28 selected anniversary
It tells you what the text of the amendments means other than the exact text from the constitution. So that way you understand what it is saying without taking so much time to look up the words.
The prior contributor's emphasis on the "equal protection" clause over the "due process" clause (neither of which refer to all of section 1...just a part of it) in the current article is interesting. Most constitutional rights applying to states that people recognize today arose out of DP not EP: right to abortion; right to birth control; etc...plus basically the rights referred to in the bill of rights. EP issues usually only arises in matters like discrimination. Reliance on EP has expanded. For example advocates of homosexual rights used to primarily argue for the recognition of homosexual unions under DP now also argue that recognition of homosexual unions should be recognized under the EP clause. B 22:39 Feb 14, 2003 (UTC)
I think that there is one very important outcome of the Fourteenth Amendment that deserves mention in the main article: U.S. corporations have come to be defined as virtual 'persons' under this law. Under this interpretation, the right of a corporation to make advertising claims or to contribute to political campaigns are protected in the same manner as an individual person's free speech or political activity. The implications for U.S. society and for the world have been enormous.
Before this interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment became entrenched, corporations existed under state charters. People took it for granted that corporations could and should be regulated as governments saw fit. It is a matter of vigorous and important debate whether the former approach is better than our current situation. The Wikipedia article should, I think, make reference to this issue and provide links to related sites.
History of the text??
Given that this one has had such huge implications for the US legal system, it would be nice if somebody in the know could write a bit about the history of its writing and passing: who suggested it, who wrote the text, why was it worded the vague way it is, etc. -- 84.57.71.188 09:42, 24 Oct 2004 (UTC)
