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Handout B: The Tenth Amendment and Reconstruction Amendments

Handout B: The Tenth Amendment and Reconstruction Amendments

The Tenth Amendment, 1791

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

  1. Restate the Tenth Amendment in your own words.

The Thirteenth Amendment, 1865

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

  1. What does the Thirteenth Amendment guarantee in every state?
  2. Restate Section 2 in your own words. Describe the relationship between Section 2 of this document and the Tenth Amendment.

Section of The Fourteenth Amendment, 1868

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….

 

Section. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

  1. What does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee to residents of every state?
  2. How does Section 5 relate to the meaning of the Tenth Amendment?

The Fifteenth Amendment, 1870

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

  1. What does the Fifteenth Amendment guarantee in every state?
  2. How does Section 2 relate to the meaning of the Tenth Amendment?