Bill of Rights

As a result of the Thirteenth Amendment the Fourteenth Amendment gave rights to the newly freed slaves (Authored by LegalMatch Law Library Managing Editor, Ken LaMance, Attorney at Law. (n.d.)). The Fourteenth Amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws. This Amendment was the second of the reconstruction amendments. There are five sections in the Fourteenth Amendment . The first section is the most litigated out of the five.The First section limits of all of the actions of the local and state officials. There are several clauses in this section of the Amendment. Some of those clauses are the Citizenship Clause , Due Process Clause, and Equal Protection Clause. The Citizenship Clause provides a definition of what citizenship is. The Due Process Clause prohibits the local and state officials from taking natural rights away without legislative authorization. The Equal Protection Clause requires all of the states to give equal protection in law to all of the people in its jurisdiction. The three sections after the first out of the five aren’t as litigated as the first one. The fifth section provides Congress with the power to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment's provisions by appropriate legislation (Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (n.d.)).The Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship and equal rights to all citizens of

1. In 1789, James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights, which lists specific constraints on federal control in a set of 10 amendments ratified by the states. Liberty, meaning freedom from governmental and economic control, was the central factor and of utmost importance in the eyes of Madison and his fellow founding fathers when drafting the Bill of Rights. Protecting the peoples’ respective personal liberties such as freedom of speech and the right to exercise particular religious beliefs played a vital role in the creation of these amendments however limits were also placed on the freedoms granted in order to preserve the nation’s wellbeing.

The idea that humans inherently possess a set of inalienable rights is a concept that originated centuries ago and has since been evolving. From the signing of the Magna Carta to present day lobbyist fighting for LGBT communities, we can see how this concept is deeply engraved in daily actions and laws worldwide.

The constitutional amendment that I find to be important is the 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote (“Constitution of the United States: Amendments 11-27”, n.d.). Throughout history, men were superior to women and as a result, women rarely had a chance to express their views and opinions. The amendment gave women the right to vote, it lead to reproductive rights, it created equal opportunities in the workplace, and it established educational rights.

The Constitution of the United States was made through compromises that not everyone agreed on but they came to an agreement on what they thought it should be. Before all of the fifty states were founded there was not a Bill of Rights, it was not until the new government was up and running before the Bill of Rights was added. The reason for this was that the framers of the constitution did not realize that the Bill of Rights was necessary to have at the time. A certainly important choice that was made was how our government was to be

The success and the approval by the necessary three-quarters of U.S states, the 14th Amendment guaranteed to the newly freed slaves protection and citizenship along with all its privileges. This amendment resolved any pre-Civil War concerns of the African American community’s citizenship by stating that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside” (Primary Documents of American History, 2011). This amendment also reinsured that they had the equal rights and privileges of the rest of the citizens, and granted all these citizens the “equal protection of the laws” (Primary Documents of American History, 2011).

Created September 25,1978 and ratified December 15, 179, the Bill of Rights was imputed into society as a tool to establish law,order, and morality. James Madison, a political theorist, was known as the father of the Bill of Rights. One of the most important amendments in the Bill of Rights is the right to freedom of speech, expression and media. In the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” The First Amendment guarantees the citizens of America that they have the right to freely express themselves about anything, including political arguments and views. This amendment also guarantees the press/media the right to overtly publish their ideas on any topic in the newspaper. The purpose of this amendment is to assure America’s people that they shouldn’t worry about being censored or punished for the expression of their feelings because they are human just as everyone else.

During the Constitutional Convention, the Federalists and Anti Federalists disagreed on many aspects of the Constitution.The Federalists wanted a strong central government while the Anti Federalists were more for state rights. That is just a small fraction of the many arguments that these two factions disagreed upon. The Constitution was eventually ratified with the Federalists compromising with the Anti Federalists by adding The Bill of Rights, a list of the general rights that a citizen was entitled to. Although the Bill of Rights gives us our inalienable rights, the government has compromised our rights to a significant extent many times in history due to fear, corruption, and control.

The 14th Amendment was ratified July 9, 1868 giving citizenship to all persons including former slaves. Any state that went against the constitution was punished, reducing their representation in Congress. The Amendment banned those who engaged in rebellion against the States from holding any civil, military or elected office without approval of two-thirds of the Senate and the House of Representatives. This Amendment didn’t authorize any former Confederate States from repaying war debts and reimburse former slave owners for freeing slaves. This became very inconvenient for former slaves owners considering that Slaves did majority or all the work on a plantation, which later became a major problem.

Constitution. This amendment was to help African Americans with citizens rights and equal representation. The U.S Constitution stated that the 14th amendment said “all person born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” The 14th amendment provided African Americans that was born in the United States equal citizenship with other natives in the U.S. It also limited the power of states that they could not take away the rights of the citizens of the United States.

The fourteenth amendment grants citizenship to "all people born or naturalized in the United States" which included slaves who had been freed after the Civil War. The fourteenth amendment had been rejected by most states but was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states. Known as the "Reconstruction Amendment," it forbids any state to deny any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

When the Confederacy did not stop, Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. The proclamation declared, "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.” (Lincoln, 1863)

The Fourteenth Amendment provides citizenship or naturalization; also that all children born in the United States become American citizens despite the citizenship of his/her parents. This was ratified in1868.

An important provision of the Bill of Rights is the protection of freedom to publish, as provided by the First Amendment. This protection applies to all kinds of publications, even those that print unpopular opinions. In most censorship cases, every attempt is made to suppress the written word after publication, not before. Minnesota passed a law in 1925 that sought to prevent newspapers, magazines, and other publications from printing obscene, malicious, scandalous and defamatory material. This law was called the Minnesota Gag Law . This law allowed private citizens and/or public prosecutors to request a court injunction to shut down any publication that was known as a public nuisance. Publishers of newspapers had to show that they had good motives for anything they were going to print before they printed it.

There are many Amendments in The Bill of Rights and all of the rights are to the constitution to the United States. The purpose of the The Bill of Rights is to protect individuals liberties. The Bill of Rights was written in 1789 and was ratified in December 15, 1791, James Madison wrote The Bill of Rights and he was the one to guide it through the New Constitution.