Post a response to this discussion thread
You stated that. . .
"The 14th amendment states that the governemt is not allowed to pass laws that take away people's rights. The purpose of this law was to prevent the federal government from passing laws such as Jim Crow laws or laws that prevented black people from voting. It was never the intention for the law to make everybody equal. Instead, people were supposed to have equal rights under the eyes of the law. The purpose of the 14th amendment was to prevent the government from doing things. It was designed to limit the action of government."
This statement is absolutely false. Have you even read the Fourteenth Amendment? Section 1 states:
"No STATE shall make or enforce any law shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the 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 law."
Section 5:
"The CONGRESS shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."
This Amendment was NOT intended "to prevent the Federal government from passing laws such as Jim Crow laws." It clearly gives the Federal government the power to enact legislation that forces STATES to treat everyone equally. It was intended to give the Federal government the authority to regulate the State's conduct with respect to the privileges and immunities of United States citizenship, due process, and equal protection. This isn't even a debatable proposition; the Civil Rights Cases themselves (United States v. Stanley, et. al., 109 U.S. 3 (1883)) describe the Fourteenth Amendment this way:
"It nullifies and makes void all state legislation, and state action of every kind, which impairs the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, or which injures them in life, liberty, or property without due process of law, or which denies to any of them the equal protection of the laws. It not only does this, but, in order that the national will, thus declared, may not be a mere brutum fulmen, the last section of the amendment invests congress with power to enforce it by appropriate legislation. To enforce what? To enforce the prohibition. To adopt appropriate legislation for correcting the effects of such prohibited state law and state acts, and thus to render them effectually null, void, and innocuous."
With respect to this particular case, I don't know if the decision is right or wrong, because I haven't read it. But, to the extent that you contend that the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to limit the actions of the Federal government, you have completely misconstrued its unambigous text.
Post a response to this discussion thread