Other Key Amendments
BOR written to protect individual liberty
Originally aimed at restraining national government; therefore, state and local governments used their reserved powers to violate the rights of Americans
13th (1865)
- Outlawed slavery and forced labor
14th (1868)
- Southern states pass "black codes" that withheld certain rights for African Americans
- Defined citizen as "anyone born or naturalized in US"
- Required states to give citizens "equal protection of the laws"
- This clause has been interpreted to extend the rights of many groups
- Forbids states from interfering with the "privileges or immunities of citizens of the US"
- Also forbids states from taking away "life, liberty, or property without due process of law"
- This aimed to make provisions of BOR binding on state governments, but the states and Supreme Court ignored this intent for many years
- Gitlow v. NY
(1925)
- Supreme Court ruled that 14th Amendment could protect free speech from "impairment by the states"
- This started the process of incorporating (applying) the BOR to the states
15th (1870)
- No state may take away a person's voting rights on the basis of race or color
- Guaranteed suffrage (the right to vote) to African Americans
- States still found ways to keep blacks from the polls
- Poll taxes
- Literacy tests
- Failed to provide suffrage to women
17th (1913)
- Allowed citizens to directly elected Senators (previously appointed by state legislatures)
18th (1919)
19th (1920)
- Constitution was silent on suffrage for women, so states used their reserved powers to deny it
- Gave women the right to vote in all national and state elections
21st (1933)
- Repealed (ended) the 18th Amendment (only amendment to undo another)
- Ended Prohibition
24th (1964)
26th (1971)
- Constitution silent on voting age, but most states made it 21
- Changed national voting age to 18
- Spurred on by Vietnam War
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