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EQUAL PROTECTION AND CITIZENSHIP TODAY:The 14th Amendment’s Significance in Current American SocietyConstitution Day EssaySeptember 13, 2017Throughout the history of the United States, twenty-seven amendments have been made to the Constitution to benefit the well-being of our country and people. The first ten of these, the Bill of Rights, are crucial to ensuring simple yet vital rights to citizens that protect our freedoms, from our freedom of speech and religion to guaranteeing certain protections in a court of law. Although these ten have a huge influence today, the Fourteenth Amendment stands above them as the most important to current American society. In recent years, news headlines in the United States consistently revolve around topics that elicit the use of the Fourteenth Amendment to justify arguments on both sides of the discussion. Three significant topics that are evidence to the significance of the amendment today include the following: same-sex marriage, abortion, and birthright citizenship/illegal immigration.In 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in response to growing tensions and problems in Reconstruction following the Civil War. Although the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865 prohibited slavery, more legal assistance was required to help newly freed African-Americans gain protection under law. The Fourteenth Amendment is composed of three core ideas: 1) every person “born or naturalized in the United States” is a U.S. citizen as well as a citizen of their state, 2) states may not “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”, and 3) states may not “deny” citizens “the equal protection of the laws”. These three statements have been instrumental since in numerous court cases and legal discussions. One area of current American society that the Fourteenth Amendment directly applied to was that of same-sex marriage. Throughout the twentieth century, same-sex couples experienced prejudice and discrimination as states did not allow this marriage until the mid-1990s. With the turn of the twenty-first century, some states began legalizing same-sex marriage, but not until 2015 did a federal change occur. In the 2015 court case Obergefell v. Hodges, the U.S. Supreme Court utilized the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment and its Equal Protection Clause to give same-sex couples the right to marry. The Equal Protection Clause applies to all people including homosexual citizens because the right to marry is a “fundamental right” that was previously denied to same-sex couples but should be protected. The Fourteenth Amendment was fundamental in securing the right of same-sex couples to marry.Another area where the Fourteenth Amendment is a notable aspect of the conversation is abortion, which is a heated debate between those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice. In every election in recent years, voters are consistently swayed to one candidate or another depending on if they are pro-life or pro-choice. The topic of abortion cuts deep for many people, as their religious beliefs place them completely against it or rather some people believe that the right to decide belongs with the parents, primarily the mother. Both sides of the argument have several reasons for their beliefs; regardless, the Fourteenth Amendment plays a significant role in this discussion. Specifically, the Fourteenth Amendment is important here because of its Equal Protection Clause. The amendment catches hold in the argument when discussing the idea of “prenatal life”. Those against abortion believe that a preborn baby is in fact a person, which means the baby should have equal protection by law; on the other hand, those who support having a choice for abortion believe that preborn babies are not yet entitled to equal protection because they have not been born yet. The debate is still continuing today, and it is clear how important the Fourteenth Amendment is to the discussion.The Fourteenth Amendment also has considerable significance in the topic of birthright citizenship, specifically for those who are born in the United States to parents who are considered illegal immigrants. The debate is a substantial one today, primarily due to the increased number of illegal immigrants in the U.S., which has raised from 3.5 million in 1990 to 11.9 million in 2008; in 2014, 4.7 million children were born to illegal immigrants in the U.S. The debate gained attention in the 2016 presidential election, as now-President Donald Trump promised to end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants. For now though, the amendment’s Citizenship Clause continues to provide citizenship for these children. Altogether, the Fourteenth Amendment is the most important to current American society. The issues that are discussed the most today all draw direct connections to the amendment, from same-sex marriage to abortion to birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants. The magnitude of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear, and it will continue to influence our society in the future. BibliographyCraddock, Joshua J. "PROTECTING PRENATAL PERSONS: DOES THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT PROHIBIT ABORTION?"?Harvard Journal Of Law & Public Policy?40, no. 2 (May 2017): 539.?MasterFILE Premier, EBSCOhost?(accessed September 12, 2017).Gerstmann, Evan. “Fourteenth Amendment, Fundamental Rights, and Same-Sex Marriage.” Insights on Law & Society 17, no. 2 (Winter 2017). HYPERLINK "" (accessed September 12, 2017).Monk, Linda R. "National Citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment."?Insights On Law & Society?17, no. 2 (Winter 2017): 14-17.?Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost?(accessed September 12, 2017).“14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.” Library of Congress. Accessed September 12, 2017. . ................
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