The Fourteenth Amendment

"Section 1.

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 States 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. 

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.  But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the mal inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President , or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.  But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.  But neither the United State nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

This amendment made the ex-slaves citizens.  It goes hand in hand with the thirteenth and the fifteenth amendment in trying to give rights to the former slaves.  In Section 2 of this amendment the voting rights are denied to convicted felons, even after they served their sentences.  Although you could request from the governor to give the right back but it cost a lot of money.  This amendment also made it so that anyone born in the United States automatically becomes a citizen and allows them all the rights that come with becoming a citizen.  

This image just shows how the fourteenth amendment became a step further in progressing the country further and working on the path to treat all people equally. 

This is a video about the discussion that is ongoing with the fourteenth amendment and immigration laws.  This Senator argues that "anchor babies" should not be allowed the same rights as other citizens because their parents were not citizens.  This seems really odd to me because the fourteenth amendment has been guaranteeing citizenship for all people born in the United States since it was ratified.