The Fourteenth. Amendment was adopted to the United States Constitution on July 9, 1868. This was one of the many Reconstruction Amendments passed.
The Fourteenth Amendment was a result of the end of the civil war. The Amendment was proposed to address issues of former slaves.
The Amendment stated that all persons born or naturalized in the United States were citizens. This meant that freed slaves were subject the same rights and laws as white men.
This amendment was highly controversial in the southern states. Plantation owners were still bitter about loosing their slaves.
The amendment also stated that any no government official shall be elected that supported the Confederacy in any way.
Over three years of litigation more than seventy proposals were drafted for the Fourteenth Amendment.
Connecticut and New Hampshire were the first states to ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
Among the many legislators involved in revising the amendment before its approval was Representative Henry Deming of Connecticut.
The Fourteenth Amendment remains one of the most frequently referenced amendments in litigation today.
