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Handout A: The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1

Handout A: The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 (1868)

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.

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. With one or two partners, write this section of the Fourteenth Amendment in your own words.
  2. Identify and explain three ways this amendment protects citizens’ liberty.
  3. In what ways did this amendment change the protections for individual rights, as well as the division between state and federal power enshrined in the Bill of Rights?