Discuss The Importance Of The 14th Amendment In Criminal Law

The 14th Amendment of the United States constitution guarantees that, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S Constitution, Sec. 1). This amendment gives the citizens of the United States their basic human rights and the process that must be taken accounted for in any given court cases. No individual born in the United States should be stripped from their rights no matter the circumstances, for example the skin color, race, religious beliefs or sexuality preferences should interfere. The Constitution is a document that was signed on September 17, 1787 for the nation in order to solve any pre-occurring disagreements that were bound to happen soon (“Constitution Faqs”). The document establishes the rights that are given to all U.S citizens laying out their rights, the freedoms that they are granted, and the series of events that were to occur in the court of law. When the Constitution was signed into effect many people at that time period had a hard time adjusting to the new laws and regulations. Despite the new laws, many would still abide their own personal traditions and not follow the new established laws. This Mentality that many had would continue to happen for the next couple of decades to come. For example,

The 8th amendment says that excessive bail shall not be required, or excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment.

The famous Founding Fathers of the United States created critical documents to protect the citizens of the country they were establishing. These documents included the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. The latter, the Bill of Rights, ensures certain rights to all citizens, and the Eighth Amendment in particular, protects citizens against cruel or unusual punishments for breaking the law. When analyzing the protection under the Eighth Amendment one must also look at all the aspects of the law including: the history of the law, the modern uses and abuses of the law, and the law’s current effectiveness.

Imagine living in a world where everyone was considered equal. Imagine living in a world where people were considerate of others. Imagine living in a world where everyone had the same rights and privileges. The Framers took a step at achieving this world with the passage of the 14th amendment. The intent of the 14th amendment was to prevent state governments from denying African Americans in the U.S. from their citizenship. At the time Africans were unable to attain citizenship because of their skin color. The Framer’s objective in formulating the 14th amendment was to grant citizenship to everyone born in the U.S., regardless of skin color. The 14th amendment expanded the protection of civil rights to all citizens in America.

The Eighth Amendment was tested through many Supreme Court and there were some very significant ones such as the Miller v. Alabama. The no cruel or unusual aspect of the Eighth Amendment gives protection of undeserving or unreasonable punishment to a citizen that commits a crime. As Supreme Court cases regarding the Eighth Amendment open and closed the meaning of no cruel or unusual punishment changed; the sentencing of death is not considered cruel and/or unusual to a suspect that is mentally insane this aspect of the Eighth Amendment is important to the wrongfully accused people that are sentenced something for a crime that they did not commit. A significant

At the time the fourteenth Amendment was made, The Civil War had recently arrived at an end, beating the Confederacy. Acting president,Abraham Lincoln, had proclaimed the slaves liberated toward the end of the war; but, there were still a great deal of waiting inquiries with respect to the previous Confederates and the status of slaves in the nation. The Amendment was made to give people below the jurisdiction of the statute the privilege to fairness. This was known as the Equal Protection Clause. At this time, the purpose behind the fourteenth Amendment is to guarantee that the Civil Rights Act was maintained. On the other hand, taking after the selection of the fourteenth Amendment, Supreme Court choices started putting limitations on the

The 1860s were an extremely turbulent decade with numerous cultural, social, and political upheavals in America. During this time period the 13th and 14th amendments were ratified giving African Americans more freedom than they had ever had. However even with the ratification of these amendments whites and blacks were still segregated. It's not possible to achieve equality while the two are races are separated. Equality can only be achieved through communication, so you can begin to understand each other's side.

The fourteenth amendment is also known as equal protection clause. Under the fourteenth amendment, the U.S. Constitution prohibits the states from denying a person that lives in the state the equal rights of the law (LII, 2017). The fourteenth amendment applies to education, especially those that are English language learners (ELL), this means that these students cannot be denied the same rights as non-English language learners. In the Supreme Court case of Lau v Nichols in 1974, this case involved a Chinese American student that attended the San Francisco Unified School District, this student was placed into a general education classroom despite the lack of being proficient in English (Wright, 2010). The school in which this student attended was found in violation, the school was giving ELL students the same material as all other students who speak proficient English and expected the Chinese American student to be able to comprehend the information that is being taught. School districts need to provide the same material, but in a modified form where the student’s will be able to access the information to learn it in the same manner as those non-English language learners.

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limits the punishments that may be imposed by the government on American citizens. These limits are compulsory among the states by way of the Fourteenth Amendment. The English Bill of Rights of 1689 expressed concern with arbitrary and disproportionate sanctions, giving way to the Founders inclusion of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. To explore the Eighth Amendment it is important to consider constitutionally accepted punishments, the ever-evolving practice of capital punishment, and eighth amendment protection inside prison walls.

“The purpose that brought the fourteenth amendment into being was equality before the law, and equality, not separation, was written into the law,” says Robert Bork. After the civil war in the US ended in 1865, the fourteenth amendment or the Equal Rights amendment was written in July 9th of 1868. Since the civil war was between south and north, and the south was defending its Black Codes, it was necessary to give the colored people a sensation of belonging to their country. Thus, the fourteenth amendment was established. Of course, the circumstances past then are surely different than the circumstances now a day. However, the Equal Rights amendment is surely still valid till our days. The amendment consists of five sections, and start by defining whom is American. Then, In the first section it clearly states that all citizens of the united states are protected and their rights should not be abridged. Obviously, the amendment does give a feeling of security to all

The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, sanctioned in 1791, has three arrangements. The CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS CLAUSE confines the seriousness of disciplines that state and governments may force upon people who have been indicted a criminal offense. The Excessive

The Civil War devastated the United States for over four years and caused a hole in the unity of the nation. Caused by conflicts that were often rooted with slavery, the nation was divided in two. The war had been building up for many years and led to many citizens throughout the nation questioning which side they supported. A victory for the North led to Abraham Lincoln abolishing slavery in 1865, which turned the nation upside down. For former slave owners, they now faced economic problems with a loss of their main source of income. On the other hand, for the slaves, they now could be free from the brutalities and hardships that had faced their whole lives. No more did they have to obey the wishes of someone else and be treated like property. These former slaves hoped that they could now live the life they had always dreamed of.

Race played a role in challenging the 14th amendment during the 1960s-70s. One way that the 14 amendment has been challenged in this topic is the court case including the regents of the University of California vs. Allan Bakke. Allan Bakke was a white man who was 35 years of age trying to apply to the university of California medical school. There were sixteen spots for minorities who “qualified” with test scores high enough to be admitted. The term “minorities” included African-Americans, Asians, American-Indians, etc. All students that applied had lower test scores than Bakke and yet he still was not accepted to the school. In fact, he exceeded everyone’s test scores who applied to the school. He tried admitting two times because after the

In discussion of the 8th amendment the topic that will be covered is the history before the amendment has been attached to the Bill of Rights, the interpretations of the amendment, and the amendment in affecting this generation today. This amendment officially states in the Constitution, “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted” (CRS/LII Annotated Constitution Eighth Amendment). This emendation is about the government mandating that punishments are not allowed when they are cruel or unusual. “…; but it is safe to affirm that punishments of torture [such as drawing and quartering, emboweling alive, beheading, public dissecting, and burning alive], and all the others in the

The 8th amendment states, "nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." S. 12 uses the word "subjected". The difference is that S. 12 can be applied to matters other then criminal punishment, as seen in Rodriguez v. British Colombia [1993] 3. S.C.R.