The 14th Amendment is the post–Civil War addition to the U.S. Constitution that made anyone born in the United States a citizen, required every state to follow fair legal procedures before taking a person’s life, liberty, or property, and guaranteed all people the equal protection of the laws. Ratified on July 9, 1868, it is the constitutional source of birthright citizenship, due process against state governments, and the equal protection guarantee that has driven civil rights law for more than a century.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fourteenth Amendment
It is also the constitutional provision through which almost the entire Bill of Rights now applies to state and local governments. That makes it, by most counts, the single most litigated part of the Constitution.
Why the Amendment Was Adopted
Before 1868, the Constitution said nothing explicit about who counted as a citizen. States set their own rules, and in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) the Supreme Court held that people of African descent could not be citizens of the United States and could not sue in federal court.2National Archives. Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) The 14th Amendment was written during Reconstruction to overturn that ruling and to bind the states to a set of national guarantees they could not repeal.
Section 1 does most of the heavy lifting. It contains four clauses: the Citizenship Clause, the Privileges or Immunities Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause. Sections 2 through 5 handle representation, disqualification of insurrectionists, public debt, and the power of Congress to enforce the whole amendment.
The Citizenship Clause
The opening sentence establishes birthright citizenship: anyone born on U.S. soil and subject to federal jurisdiction is automatically a citizen of the United States and of the state where they live.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fourteenth Amendment That single rule replaced a patchwork of state definitions with a national standard no state can override.
The phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has always carried a narrow exclusion. In Elk v. Wilkins (1884), the Supreme Court read it to mean “completely subject to” U.S. political jurisdiction and “owing direct and immediate allegiance” to the United States.3Justia. Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94 (1884) The traditional exclusions are children of foreign diplomats, who are legally immune from U.S. jurisdiction, and, historically, members of Native American tribes. Congress extended citizenship to all Native Americans by statute in 1924.
The 2025 Challenge to Birthright Citizenship
In January 2025, an executive order directed federal agencies to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States when neither parent was a citizen or lawful permanent resident.4The White House. Protecting The Meaning And Value Of American Citizenship A federal district court entered a preliminary injunction finding the order likely violated the 14th Amendment, and the Ninth Circuit struck it down in July 2025. As of early 2026, the Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in the case but has not issued a final ruling. Until it does, the traditional interpretation of the Citizenship Clause remains in force.
The Due Process Clause
The Due Process Clause forbids any state from depriving a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.1Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fourteenth Amendment The Fifth Amendment already placed that duty on the federal government. The 14th Amendment extends it to every state, county, and city.5National Archives. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – Civil Rights (1868) Courts read the clause as having two branches.
Procedural Due Process
Procedural due process is the requirement that the government follow fair steps before acting against you. At a minimum, that means notice of what the government intends to do and an opportunity to be heard before it happens.6Constitution Annotated. Overview of Due Process Procedural Requirements The heavier the potential consequence, the more process is owed. A parking ticket requires less; a criminal prosecution requires much more, including the right to counsel, to confront witnesses, and to present a defense. When the government skips those steps, courts can throw out convictions, reverse agency decisions, or order new hearings.
Substantive Due Process
Substantive due process goes further. It holds that some rights are so fundamental the government cannot take them away no matter how careful the procedures. This doctrine is how the Supreme Court has protected rights that appear nowhere in the Constitution’s text.
Two competing tests shape the analysis. In Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), the Court said a protected liberty interest must be “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” In Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which recognized same-sex marriage, the Court took a broader view, saying fundamental rights do not “come from ancient sources alone” and must reflect evolving understandings of liberty.
The tension between those approaches came to a head in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), where the Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned to the stricter history-and-tradition test. The majority said the right to abortion was not deeply rooted in American history and therefore not protected. It added that the decision should not be read to “cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion,” but the ruling establishes history and tradition as the current framework for substantive due process claims.7Supreme Court of the United States. Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization (2022)
How the Bill of Rights Now Applies to States
The Bill of Rights originally restricted only the federal government. A state law that abridged speech, allowed unreasonable searches, or imposed cruel punishment sat outside its reach. The 14th Amendment changed that through a doctrine called selective incorporation: on a case-by-case basis, the Supreme Court has held that individual Bill of Rights protections are essential to due process and therefore apply to the states through the 14th Amendment. The process began with free speech in 1925 and has continued for nearly a century.
Almost every major protection is now incorporated:
- First Amendment freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition
- Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, incorporated in McDonald v. Chicago (2010)
- Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures
- Fifth Amendment protections against double jeopardy and self-incrimination, plus the takings requirement of just compensation
- Sixth Amendment rights to a speedy, public jury trial, counsel, and confrontation of witnesses
- Eighth Amendment protection against excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment
A few provisions remain unincorporated: the Third Amendment’s quartering ban, the Fifth Amendment’s grand jury requirement, the Seventh Amendment’s civil jury right, and parts of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.8Legal Information Institute. Incorporation Doctrine The practical effect is enormous. When a local police department conducts an illegal search or a state university punishes a student for speech, the constitutional claim runs through the 14th Amendment. Without it, there would be no federal constitutional remedy at all.
The Equal Protection Clause
The Equal Protection Clause requires every state to give all people within its borders the same legal protections. Governments can still draw distinctions, but those distinctions have to survive judicial review, and the level of review depends on the kind of classification the law uses.
The Three Tiers of Scrutiny
- Strict scrutiny applies to laws that classify by race, national origin, religion, or alienage. The government must show the law serves a compelling interest and is narrowly tailored to it. Few laws survive.
- Intermediate scrutiny applies to classifications based on gender or legitimacy. The government must show the law furthers an important interest and is substantially related to that interest.
- Rational basis review applies to everything else, including most economic regulations. The challenger must show the classification has no rational relationship to any legitimate government purpose. Most laws pass.
The gap between the tiers is deliberate. Strict scrutiny is sometimes called “strict in theory, fatal in fact.” Rational basis review is so deferential that courts almost always uphold the law.
Landmark Cases
Some of the most consequential Supreme Court rulings in American history rest on this clause. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”9Constitution Annotated. Brown v. Board of Education Loving v. Virginia (1967) struck down state bans on interracial marriage, holding that “restricting the freedom to marry solely because of racial classifications violates the central meaning of the Equal Protection Clause.”10Library of Congress. Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) Modern equal protection litigation continues to shape voting rights, affirmative action, LGBTQ+ rights, and criminal sentencing.
The Privileges or Immunities Clause
Section 1 also forbids states from abridging the privileges or immunities of U.S. citizens. On paper, this looked like a powerful guarantee that states could not strip away the rights of national citizenship. In practice, the Supreme Court emptied it almost immediately. In the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), the Court held that the clause protected only a narrow set of rights already secured by federal law, calling it “a superfluous reiteration of a prohibition already operative against the states.”11Constitution Annotated. Privileges or Immunities of Citizens and the Slaughter-House Cases What survives is a handful of federal-citizenship rights, including the right to travel between states.12Constitution Annotated. Modern Doctrine on Privileges or Immunities Clause The work this clause was supposed to do has largely shifted to the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses.
Sections 2 Through 5
The rest of the amendment covers structural matters that get less attention than Section 1, though several have resurfaced recently.
Section 2 replaced the Constitution’s original three-fifths formula with a rule counting the whole number of persons in each state for congressional apportionment. It included a penalty that would reduce a state’s representation if it denied the vote to eligible male citizens.13Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution Amendment 14 Section 2 – Apportionment of Representation The penalty was never meaningfully enforced and was largely superseded by the 15th, 19th, and 26th Amendments.
Section 3 bars anyone who took an oath to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection from holding federal or state office.14Congress.gov. Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 It sat dormant for over a century before returning to national attention after January 6, 2021. In Trump v. Anderson (2024), the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a Colorado ruling that had disqualified former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary. The Court held that “States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency,” and that enforcement authority rests with Congress under Section 5.15Supreme Court of the United States. Trump v. Anderson (2024) Because Congress has not passed modern enforcement legislation, Section 3 currently has no practical mechanism for disqualifying federal candidates.
Section 4 declares that the public debt of the United States “shall not be questioned” and voids any debts incurred to support rebellion.16Congress.gov. Fourteenth Amendment – Section 4 Its original purpose was to honor Union war debts, reject Confederate ones, and bar compensation to former slaveholders. The clause has been invoked in modern debates over the federal debt ceiling, but no court has resolved how far it reaches.
Section 5 gives Congress the power to enforce the amendment through legislation.17Constitution Annotated. Fourteenth Amendment Section 5 This is the constitutional foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other major civil rights statutes. As Trump v. Anderson reinforced, it also makes Congress the primary body responsible for giving effect to provisions like Section 3, meaning that when Congress does not act, some parts of the amendment become effectively unenforceable against federal officials.