By Chesley Payne
In legal circles the 14th Amendment is often cited as the amendment with the most profound effect on the rights of everyday citizens.
Passed after the Civil War along with the 13th Amendment (banning slavery) and the 15th Amendment (right to vote), the pertinent section of the 14th Amendment states: “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.”
The reason this is so important goes back to the 19th century. Prior to the passage of the 14th Amendment, the Bill of Rights was deemed to only apply to the federal government and not the states. Beginning in the 1920s, the Supreme Court began using this section of the 14th Amendment to apply the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states through a process called “incorporation.”
The Supreme Court has held, and continues to hold, that citizens are citizens of the states and the federal government. Therefore, the provisions of the Constitution, as the supreme law of the land, must apply to the states as well as the federal government. This is why the state and federal government must acknowledge and abide by the protections given to citizens under the Bill of Rights.
One example of incorporation is a criminal defendant’s right to counsel in a criminal matter. Before the decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), states weren’t required to provide counsel in felony cases. However, the Supreme Court held that the 6th Amendment right to counsel does apply to the states as the 6th Amendment is incorporated through the 14th Amendment.
While there are provisions that haven’t been incorporated (e.g, right of jury trial in civil cases), the Supreme Court has made it clear that all levels of government must continue to uphold the rights of citizens as set out in the Constitution.