In 1865, the 13th Amendment to US Constitution was ratified, legally abolishing slavery in the United States. Then the question arose of what to do with all of the freed slaves. Northern states wanted to grant them full citizenship and the rights that go with it, but the southern states fought hard to prevent that from happening.
By the end of 1865, over 70 different drafts for another amendment were floating around the floors of Congress, but most were quickly dismissed. The Republicans of the North generally supported citizenship for freed slaves and the Democrats of the South opposed giving them citizenship. After a long battle, the Fourteenth Amendment was drafted and passed by both the Senate and House, guaranteeing citizenship to every person born or naturalized in the US, not just freed slaves.
However, many southern states refused to ratify the Amendment. Their refusal led to the passage of the Reconstruction Act, which basically forced the southern states to ratify the 14th Amendment if they wanted representation in Congress. Reluctantly, enough southern states ratified the Amendment and it was adopted in 1868.
Section 1 of the 14th Amendment has been used in many legal battles over the years. It says:
“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.”
This section was used in the arguments is such famous cases as Roe v. Wade in 1973 and Bush v. Gore in 2000 to decide who won the presidency. However, the most common use of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment has been in cases involving blacks, such as integration and civil rights. In some instances, blacks have used this to secure preferential treatment through forms of affirmative action. Lately, it has also been used to try to get benefits and citizenship for millions of illegal aliens.
In a move that riled the feathers of the liberals on the Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia addressed the court in the hearing of a case involving the use of race in college admission in Michigan. Scalia stated:
“My goodness, I thought we’ve … held that the 14th Amendment protects all races. I mean, that was the argument in the early years, that it protected only … the blacks. But I thought we rejected that. You, you say now that we have to proceed as though its purpose is not to protect whites, only to protect minorities?”
One of those liberals on the bench that had her feathers ruffled was Justice Sonia Sotomayor, herself being a member of a minority group. She quipped back at Scalia saying:
“It was intended to bring back segregation and appears to have done just that.”
Evidently, she does not believe in equal protection to all citizens which is the heart of the 14th Amendment. Like so many others that belong to a minority, Sotomayor has repeatedly pushed and ruled to give preferential treatment to ethnic and sexual preference minorities. They don’t want equality as they state and they never have. They want superiority and special rights that the rest of America doesn’t have so that they can force their ideas and agendas on the rest of us.
I applaud Scalia for his understanding of the 14th Amendment and pray that there are enough others on the bench who also believe in equality for all and not special rights for the few.