History of the 14th Amendment.
Citizenship and Birthright Citizenship
Birthright Citizenship Under the U.S. Constitution
Article link | Samuel Breidbart and Maryjane Johnson | Brennan Center for Justice | Updated February 23, 2026
Explains how the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause has long been understood to guarantee citizenship to people born on U.S. soil, and connects that history to modern debates over immigration and constitutional meaning.
A Brief History of Citizenship in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Article link | UC Davis Letters and Science | UC Davis | February 13, 2025
Reviews the origins of birthright citizenship, the overturning of Dred Scott, and the importance of United States v. Wong Kim Ark in defining citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
Presidents Can't End Birthright Citizenship
Article link | Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | January 20, 2025
Argues that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment cannot be overridden by executive action, emphasizing the amendment’s post-Civil War purpose of creating a national guarantee of citizenship.
United States v. Wong Kim Ark
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 28, 1898
Summarizes the landmark birthright citizenship case holding that a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrant parents was a U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment.
Elk v. Wilkins
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | November 3, 1884
Covers the Supreme Court decision denying automatic 14th Amendment citizenship to a Native man who had left his tribe, later superseded by the Indian Citizenship Act.
14th Amendment: Citizenship Rights, Equal Protection, Apportionment, Civil War Debt
Article link | National Constitution Center | National Constitution Center | July 9, 1868
Provides a clause-by-clause overview of the amendment’s text and meaning, including citizenship, civil rights, representation, disqualification, Confederate debt, and enforcement.
Dred Scott v. Sandford
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 6, 1857
Covers the Supreme Court decision denying citizenship to Black Americans, the ruling the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was designed to overturn.
Origins, Text, and Reconstruction History
The Originalist Fiction of a Race-Neutral Constitution Is Damaging Civil Rights Law
Article link | Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | August 22, 2024
Discusses how Reconstruction-era lawmakers understood equal protection as a tool for protecting Black citizenship and civil rights, challenging later claims that the 14th Amendment required absolute race-neutrality.
On This Day, Congress Approved the 14th Amendment
Article link | NCC Staff | National Constitution Center | June 13, 2024
Summarizes the congressional approval of the 14th Amendment on June 13, 1866, and explains how it became a cornerstone of citizenship, due process, and equal protection after ratification.
10 Supreme Court Cases About the 14th Amendment
Article link | NCC Staff | National Constitution Center | July 9, 2020
Lists major Supreme Court decisions that shaped citizenship, civil rights, due process, equal protection, segregation, privacy, and incorporation under the 14th Amendment.
Equal Protection
Article link | American Bar Association | ABA | September 9, 2019
Provides a teaching resource on the Equal Protection Clause, helping explain how the 14th Amendment requires government to justify unequal treatment under law.
Law Day Theme Is the 14th Amendment
Article link | American Bar Association | ABA | May 31, 2017
Highlights the 14th Amendment’s central role in U.S. citizenship, due process, equal protection, civil rights, and later constitutional struggles.
Landmark Legislation: The Fourteenth Amendment
Article link | United States Senate | Senate Historical Office | July 9, 1868
Explains the Senate’s role in passing the 14th Amendment and summarizes its guarantees of national citizenship, due process, and equal protection.
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights, 1868
Article link | National Archives | National Archives | July 9, 1868
Provides the text and historical background of the 14th Amendment, passed by Congress in 1866 and ratified in 1868 to protect citizenship and civil rights after slavery.
Fourteenth Amendment
Article link | Library of Congress | Constitution Annotated | July 9, 1868
Provides the full text and constitutional annotations for all five sections of the 14th Amendment, including citizenship, representation, disqualification, debt, and enforcement.
The Fourteenth Amendment: Section 1
Article link | Library of Congress | Constitution Annotated | July 9, 1868
Explains Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, including citizenship, privileges or immunities, due process, and equal protection.
The Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause
Article link | National Constitution Center | National Constitution Center | July 9, 1868
Explains how the Due Process Clause became a major source for incorporation of the Bill of Rights and later substantive liberty claims.
Interpretation: The Equal Protection Clause
Article link | National Constitution Center | National Constitution Center | July 9, 1868
Reviews the origin and broad later meaning of the Equal Protection Clause, from Reconstruction’s protection of Black citizens to later civil rights law.
Bradwell v. Illinois
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | April 15, 1873
Explains an early 14th Amendment case rejecting a woman’s claim that the Privileges or Immunities Clause protected her right to practice law.
Section 3, Insurrection, and Disqualification
What the Supreme Court Got Wrong in the Trump Section 3 Case
Article link | Lawfare | Lawfare | March 8, 2024
Analyzes the Supreme Court’s Trump v. Anderson decision and argues that the Court narrowed Section 3 of the 14th Amendment by requiring congressional enforcement before disqualification.
Section 3 Disqualification Answers—and Many More Questions
Article link | Scott R. Anderson | Lawfare | March 4, 2024
Explains what the Supreme Court resolved and left unresolved about Section 3, the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause for oath-breaking insurrectionists.
Trump v. Anderson
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 4, 2024
Covers the Supreme Court case holding that states could not independently remove a presidential candidate from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
For Whatever Reason: Will the Colorado Supreme Court Apply the Constitutional Insurrectionist Bar to Presidents?
Article link | Roger Parloff | Lawfare | December 6, 2023
Examines the historical and textual dispute over whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies to presidents and presidential candidates.
Treason, Insurrection, and Disqualification: From the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 to Jan. 6, 2021
Article link | Mark A. Graber | Lawfare | September 26, 2022
Places Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in a long history of treason, rebellion, slavery, and constitutional disqualification.
After the Cawthorn Ruling, Can Trump Be Saved From Section 3 of the 14th Amendment?
Article link | Roger Parloff | Lawfare | June 7, 2022
Discusses modern litigation over Section 3 disqualification and how Reconstruction-era amnesty debates might affect later candidates accused of insurrection.
Disqualifying Insurrectionists and Rebels: A How-To Guide
Article link | Gerard N. Magliocca | Lawfare | January 19, 2021
Explains how Section 3 of the 14th Amendment was designed to prevent former rebels from returning to public office after the Civil War.
The 14th Amendment's Disqualification Provision and the Events of Jan. 6
Article link | Gerard N. Magliocca | Lawfare | January 19, 2021
Connects the 14th Amendment’s Section 3 disqualification language to modern questions about insurrection and eligibility for public office.
The Fourteenth Amendment: Section 3
Article link | Library of Congress | Constitution Annotated | July 9, 1868
Explains the history and meaning of the 14th Amendment’s disqualification clause for former oath-holders who engaged in insurrection or rebellion.
Equal Protection, Race, Gender, and Civil Rights
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 29, 2023
Summarizes the Supreme Court’s decision restricting race-conscious college admissions under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 29, 2023
Covers the companion affirmative-action case applying the 14th Amendment’s equal protection rules to public university admissions.
The Equal Rights Amendment, Explained
Article link | Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | January 23, 2020
Explains the Equal Rights Amendment while also discussing how the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause became an important source of sex-discrimination doctrine.
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 28, 2007
Summarizes a major school desegregation and race-conscious assignment case under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Grutter v. Bollinger
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 23, 2003
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision upholding limited race-conscious admissions under the Equal Protection Clause before later cases narrowed that doctrine.
Gratz v. Bollinger
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 23, 2003
Explains the companion affirmative-action case in which the Court rejected a point-based racial preference system under the 14th Amendment.
Bush v. Gore
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | December 12, 2000
Covers the Supreme Court decision using the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment in the Florida presidential recount dispute.
Romer v. Evans
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 20, 1996
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision striking down a Colorado amendment targeting gay and lesbian people under the Equal Protection Clause.
Adarand Constructors v. Peña
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 12, 1995
Explains how equal protection principles associated with the 14th Amendment were applied to federal affirmative-action programs through the Fifth Amendment.
City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co.
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | January 23, 1989
Covers a major equal protection case limiting local affirmative-action contracting programs under strict scrutiny.
City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | July 1, 1985
Explains an Equal Protection Clause case involving disability discrimination and rational-basis review with closer scrutiny of prejudice.
Plyler v. Doe
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 15, 1982
Covers the Supreme Court decision holding that states cannot deny public education to children based on undocumented immigration status under the 14th Amendment.
Craig v. Boren
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | December 20, 1976
Summarizes the case establishing intermediate scrutiny for sex-based classifications under the Equal Protection Clause.
Frontiero v. Richardson
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 14, 1973
Covers an early sex-discrimination case applying equal protection principles to federal benefits rules.
San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 21, 1973
Explains the Supreme Court decision holding that education is not a fundamental right under the 14th Amendment and upholding school funding based on local property taxes.
Reed v. Reed
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | November 22, 1971
Covers the first Supreme Court case to strike down a sex-based classification under the Equal Protection Clause.
Loving v. Virginia
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 12, 1967
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision striking down bans on interracial marriage under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 24, 1966
Explains the Supreme Court decision striking down poll taxes in state elections under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Baker v. Carr
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 26, 1962
Covers the reapportionment case that opened the door to federal equal protection challenges against malapportioned state legislative districts.
Bolling v. Sharpe
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 17, 1954
Summarizes the companion school desegregation case applying equal protection-like principles to the federal government through the Fifth Amendment.
Brown v. Board of Education
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 17, 1954
Covers the landmark decision holding that racial segregation in public schools violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Shelley v. Kraemer
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 3, 1948
Explains how judicial enforcement of racially restrictive housing covenants counted as state action under the 14th Amendment.
Korematsu v. United States
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | December 18, 1944
Covers the wartime Japanese American incarceration case and its later significance for equal protection, race, and constitutional scrutiny.
Buchanan v. Warley
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | November 5, 1917
Covers a Supreme Court decision striking down racial residential zoning under the 14th Amendment.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 18, 1896
Covers the Supreme Court decision upholding racial segregation under “separate but equal,” a major failure of 14th Amendment equal protection later overturned by Brown.
Yick Wo v. Hopkins
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 10, 1886
Summarizes a major equal protection case holding that discriminatory enforcement of a facially neutral law violated the 14th Amendment.
Strauder v. West Virginia
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 1, 1880
Summarizes the decision holding that excluding Black citizens from juries violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Due Process, Incorporation, and Personal Liberty
Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 24, 2022
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and rejecting a 14th Amendment substantive due process right to abortion.
Obergefell v. Hodges
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 26, 2015
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision holding that the 14th Amendment’s Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses protect the right of same-sex couples to marry.
McDonald v. Chicago
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 28, 2010
Covers the Supreme Court decision applying the Second Amendment to the states through the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
Lawrence v. Texas
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 26, 2003
Covers the Supreme Court ruling striking down sodomy laws under the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause and expanding constitutional protection for private liberty.
Planned Parenthood v. Casey
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 29, 1992
Summarizes the Supreme Court’s reaffirmation and modification of Roe under the 14th Amendment’s substantive due process doctrine.
Bowers v. Hardwick
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 30, 1986
Summarizes the Supreme Court’s earlier rejection of a 14th Amendment privacy claim in same-sex intimacy cases, later overturned by Lawrence v. Texas.
Roe v. Wade
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | January 22, 1973
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision that recognized abortion access as part of 14th Amendment liberty before being overturned by Dobbs.
Duncan v. Louisiana
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 20, 1968
Explains how the right to jury trial in serious criminal cases was incorporated against the states through the 14th Amendment.
Miranda v. Arizona
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 13, 1966
Covers a landmark criminal procedure case tied to due process and the incorporation of constitutional protections against state police practices.
Gideon v. Wainwright
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 18, 1963
Summarizes the case incorporating the Sixth Amendment right to counsel against the states through the 14th Amendment.
Mapp v. Ohio
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 19, 1961
Explains the case applying the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule to the states through the 14th Amendment.
Skinner v. Oklahoma
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 1, 1942
Summarizes the Supreme Court decision striking down forced sterilization for certain crimes and recognizing procreation as a fundamental liberty interest.
West Coast Hotel v. Parrish
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 29, 1937
Explains the decline of Lochner-era substantive due process and the Court’s greater acceptance of economic regulation under the 14th Amendment.
Powell v. Alabama
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | November 7, 1932
Covers the Scottsboro Boys case and the 14th Amendment due process requirement of counsel in capital cases.
Near v. Minnesota
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 1, 1931
Summarizes an incorporation case applying First Amendment press protections to the states through the 14th Amendment.
Gitlow v. New York
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 8, 1925
Explains one of the first major cases using the 14th Amendment to apply First Amendment free speech protections against state governments.
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 1, 1925
Covers the due process case protecting parental and private-school liberty against state efforts to require public schooling only.
Meyer v. Nebraska
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 4, 1923
Summarizes a 14th Amendment substantive due process case protecting language education and parental liberty.
Lochner v. New York
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | April 17, 1905
Explains the famous substantive due process case using the 14th Amendment to protect “liberty of contract,” later heavily criticized.
The Slaughter-House Cases
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | April 14, 1873
Covers the first major Supreme Court interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which narrowly read the Privileges or Immunities Clause and shaped later constitutional law.
Corporate Personhood and Economic Rights
The History of Corporate Personhood
Article link | Brennan Center for Justice | Brennan Center for Justice | April 8, 2014
Traces how the 14th Amendment, originally adopted to protect formerly enslaved people, was later used by corporations claiming constitutional protections.
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 10, 1886
Explains a case associated with the rise of corporate claims under the 14th Amendment’s protections for “persons.”
Congressional Enforcement and Reconstruction Civil Rights
Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama v. Garrett
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | February 21, 2001
Discusses limits on Congress’s Section 5 enforcement power under the 14th Amendment in disability-rights litigation against states.
United States v. Morrison
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | May 15, 2000
Summarizes a case limiting Congress’s power to enforce the 14th Amendment against private violence when state action is not sufficiently shown.
City of Boerne v. Flores
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | June 25, 1997
Covers a major ruling on Congress’s Section 5 power, holding that enforcement laws under the 14th Amendment must be remedial rather than redefining constitutional rights.
The Civil Rights Cases
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | October 15, 1883
Explains the Supreme Court decision limiting Congress’s ability to use the 14th Amendment against private discrimination, weakening Reconstruction civil rights enforcement.
United States v. Cruikshank
Article link | Oyez | Oyez | March 27, 1876
Covers a major Reconstruction-era case that sharply limited federal civil rights prosecutions after the Colfax Massacre.
The Fourteenth Amendment: Section 5
Article link | Library of Congress | Constitution Annotated | July 9, 1868
Reviews Congress’s enforcement power under Section 5 and how it became central to later civil rights legislation and constitutional litigation.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866
Article link | United States Senate | Senate Historical Office | April 9, 1866
Explains the law that declared national citizenship and equal civil rights after slavery, helping lay the groundwork for the 14th Amendment.
