equal protection of the laws
3
7.1
- noun
- /ˈiːkwəl prəˈtɛkʃən əv ðə lɔːz/
- Formal
:
igualdad ante la ley
- I have operated my whole adult life on the proposition that civil liberties, especially free speech and the equal protection of the laws, are essential to the progress of civil rights and legal equality.
- guarantee of equal protection of the laws
- right to equal protection of the laws
The government shall pass no law abridging equal protection of the law shall not be denied.
- The government shall pass no law abridging equal protection of the law shall not be denied.
Examples
-
Applying the same principle, a state's consistent and systematic failure to act, "depriving some persons within their jurisdiction of the equal protection of the laws," warrants federal intervention.
Academic text (2016) -
However, the second clause of section 1 does apply to them, giving them equal protection of the laws, as Senator Morton explained above.
Academic text (2017) -
Among other things, he argued that the DOT rule denied him equal protection of the law.
Academic text (2004) -
Does it mean that the state shall not deprive a man of the equal protection of the law for his person?
Academic text (2017) -
(5.9) All persons are equal before the law and are entitled, without any discrimination, to the equal protection of the law.
Academic text (1990) -
The Texas law was created precisely to single out the children of illegal immigrants and deny them the equal protection of the laws, withholding access to the public school system in Texas.
Academic text (2017) -
Thus, the intent of the legislators when drafting the amendment was the same as the original public meaning of the amendment: "equal protection of the laws" in 1868 meant that all laws were to protect and apply to all persons in the same manner.
Academic text (2017) -
In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits a state from denying to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws; but this provision does not, any more than the one which precedes it and which we have just considered, add anything to the rights which one citizen has under the Constitution against another.
Academic text (2017) -
Provisions one, two, and four of Arizona's S.B. 1070 treat noncitizens residing illegally in the United States as a separate class of people in the eyes of the law, despite our understanding of the Equal Protection Clause to mean that the equal protection of the laws is granted to all persons residing in the United States.
Academic text (2017) -
All persons within the city shall be entitled to equal protection of the laws.
Synonyms
2
3.7
All people get the same treatment under the law
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
equal + protection + of + the + law
The meaning — that everyone should receive the same safeguarding under the law — follows directly from combining 'equal' (same), 'protection' (safeguarding) and 'of the laws' (under legal authority). While the phrase is a legal/formal term tied to constitutional doctrine, its basic compositional sense is clear and cross-linguistically recognizable to a learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Equal protection of the laws comes from the United States Constitution after the Civil War, when leaders wanted the law to protect everyone the same. It pictures the laws as a protection that covers people equally, so the idea of equal treatment explains why it means 'the right to be treated equally by the law'.