The first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution states that any person, who was born or naturalized in the United States of America, becomes the citizen of the States. It guarantees that basic human rights for life, liberty and property would not be denied by the state without corresponding law process. The Fourteenth Amendment broadened the definition of the citizenship and therefore, in 1866, when the amendment was ratified, slaves and former slaves got the status of a citizen. This also means that other minorities as well as women got the citizenship in the United States of America. The amendment is still important and relevant for the American nation because it protects and guarantees the rights of minorities living in the United States. The issues of racism and sexism are still taking place in the modern American society and this amendment to the Constitution proves that every citizen of the country has the right for life, property and liberty. One of the examples of the typical violation of the 14th amendment could be actions of US policemen. In case police officers stop representatives of any ethnic minority only because they seem to be suspicious it is the direct violation of the Amendment because it guarantees the right of liberty to any person regardless the race (Rosenthal, 2011). But it is not limited only with racial and sexual issues. One of the aspects the Fourteenth Amendment deals with is the abortion issues as well as euthanasia (assisted suicide). One of the famous examples of the abortion theme happened in 1973 when in the case Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court stated that no state may outlaw abortion “in the period of pregnancy prior to the time at which the fetus becomes viable ” (Perry, 1999, p 117).
So, despite the fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in the second half of the 19th century it is still an important matter in the judicial practice of the United States.
References
National Archives. Fourteenth Amendment. Retrieved from http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_amendments_11-27.html#14.
Perry, M. J. (1999). We Are the People: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rosenthal, A. (2011, December 6). Racial Profiling Versus Affirmative Action. The New York Times. Retrived from http://loyalopposition.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/racial-profiling-versus-affirmative-action/
