Fourteenth Amendment
7
7.2
- proper noun
- /ˈfɔrˌθiːnθ əˈmɛndmənt/
- Formal
:
Decimocuarta Enmienda
- The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ensures that every person born in the U.S. is granted citizenship.
- clause of the Fourteenth Amendment
- Fourteenth Amendment equal protection
- framers of the Fourteenth Amendment
Examples
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Coleman raised several constitutional claims, including a Fourteenth Amendment equal protection argument.
Academic text (2008) -
Turner challenged that policy, arguing that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment required the state to provide representation.
Academic text (2017) -
Congress tried again, and this second attempt became the Fourteenth Amendment.
Academic text (2017) -
Thus was born the congressional push for the Fourteenth Amendment.
Academic text (2017) -
And, of course, it may have also violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States.
Academic text (1990) -
Under Justice Hugo L. Black's view, the Fourteenth Amendment would incorporate the First Amendment.
Academic text (1991) -
Second, at the time of the Fourteenth Amendment's ratification, there were no formal immigration or naturalization laws.
Academic text (2017) -
Legal scholars often refer to the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause to discuss civil rights.
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Many landmark Supreme Court cases have cited the Fourteenth Amendment as a foundation for their rulings on equality.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase transparently denotes the amendment numbered 14 because 'fourteenth' (ordinal) + 'amendment' (a modification to a law) make clear it is the 14th amendment to a legal document. However, the specific legal content and historical significance (citizenship and equal protection under the U.S. Constitution) cannot be derived from the parts alone and requires background knowledge, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Fourteenth Amendment comes from a change to the United States Constitution made after the Civil War. Lawmakers wrote this 14th amendment to give people born or made citizens in the United States 'citizenship' and to promise them 'equal protection' under the law, so the phrase now means those core legal rights.