![]() ![]() The framers of the Constitution knew, and we should not forget today, that there is no more effective practical guaranty against arbitrary and unreasonable government than to require that the principles of law which officials would impose upon a minority must be imposed generally. New York (1949), underscored the importance of equal protection for citizens and the special role the courts play in its enforcement: Justice Robert Jackson, in his concurrence in Railway Express Agency v. One source of these debates is the inherent tension between personal liberty and societal equality-two values equally promised by the Constitution, but guaranteed to be in conflict. The history of equal protection in the United States has not been one where equality of all citizens has been uniformly valued in fact, much of our political and legal debate has centered on the questions of what is meant by “equality” and how it best may be secured. deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” In Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment, Congress is empowered to enforce these guarantees through federal legislation. deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. ![]() More specifically, the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits each state from making or enforcing any law “which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States. While this amendment was designed to ensure that newly freed slaves as well as “free blacks” were granted full citizenship, the Fourteenth Amendment also placed specific responsibilities on the states as to how they must treat their citizens. The primary articulation of this understanding is found in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, passed in 1868 after the end of the Civil War. The legal challenge raised by equal protection jurisprudence has been to determine when such distinctions are appropriate and constitutional. ![]() Americans believe that laws must not distinguish between different groups. One fundamental characteristic of the American constitutional system has been the precept that a law cannot discriminate among individuals who are essentially similar. ![]()
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