Legislative · Federal
Fourteenth Amendment ratified, granting citizenship and equal protection
- Direction
- +2 — major benefit to Freedmen
- Force
- 1.00 — enacted, vetoed, or final
- Status
- Decided
- Date
- 1868-07-09
Why this rating
Ratified July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship and equal protection of the laws, directly securing the citizenship of formerly enslaved people and their descendants. Rated +2: foundational, material, and lineage-defining, with force of constitutional law.
Summary
Ratified July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment established birthright citizenship and equal protection of the laws, directly securing the citizenship of formerly enslaved people and their descendants. Rated +2: foundational, material, and lineage-defining, with force of constitutional law.
Sources
- 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868) — National Archives — official record · primary · historical
Rated under the published impact rubric. Direction records what a measure would do if fully effective; force records how far it has actually travelled. Neither is inferred — both trace to the sources above. Think something here is wrong? Tell us and we will log the correction.