Ratified in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution specifically promises “due process of law” and “equal protection of the laws” to all Americans, guarantees a handful of other rights, and includes a number of other provisions aimed at reuniting the nation after the American Civil War. It is very similar to the Fifth Amendment: the difference is that the Fifth Amendment applies to the federal government, while the Fourteenth applies to state governments. One of the most controversial and contested parts of the United States Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment was in large part specifically intended to guarantee legal equality for African Americans. Rothstein argues that the United States’ de jure residential segregation clearly violates this amendment because it “constitutes unfair treatment” of African Americans relative to white Americans.
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Fourteenth Amendment Term Timeline in The Color of Law
The timeline below shows where the term Fourteenth Amendment appears in The Color of Law. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Preface
Systematic housing discrimination is also illegal: it violates not only the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, but also the Thirteenth, which both outlaws slavery and gives Congress the...
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Chapter 3: Racial Zoning
...v. Warley, the Supreme Court blocked Louisville, Kentucky’s segregation ordinance in 1917, deciding that the Fourteenth Amendment lets homeowners sell to whomever they want. But other cities continued imposing segregated zoning—Atlanta followed...
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Chapter 5: Private Agreements, Government Enforcement
...1948 case Shelley v. Kraemer, because enforcing them required government involvement and therefore violates the Fourteenth Amendment . But the FHA responded with “massive resistance,” deciding not to make any changes whatsoever—residents...
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Chapter 9: State-Sanctioned Violence
...in violence. Therefore, the police’s actions should be considered as “state policy that violated the Fourteenth Amendment [],” and there is no question “that law enforcement officers conspired to violate the [Gary...
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