Kentucky Finally Ratifies the 14th Amendment
On this day, Kentucky became the last state to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, originally adopted July 9, 1868, guarantees that no state shall deprive people of “life, liberty, or property without due process of law,” or deny them equal protection under the law.
The Fourteenth Amendment is widely regarded as the cornerstone of the revolution in the law of civil rights and civil liberties in the twentieth century.
Ohio had previously ratified but rescinded its ratification. On September 17, 2003 Ohio re-ratified the Fourteenth Amendment.
The crucial Section 1 of the Amendment: “Section 1. All persons 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; 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.”
Follow a timeline of the adoption of Constitutional amendments: http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html
Learn more: Michael Perry, We the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court (1999)
Learn more about the Fourteenth Amendment at the Constitution Center here
Read about the history of the Bill of Rights: Akhil Reed Amar, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction (2000)