The Amendment Of The Fourteenth Amendment - 1416 Words

John A. Bingham, Republican of Ohio had long been a believer in the idea of equal protection of the laws for all people, and was one of the leaders of the effort to pass the Fourteenth Amendment. While aware of the need to prove the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act with the Fourteenth Amendment, Bingham did not actually believe that the Fourteenth Amendment created any new rights. Rather, he believed that it created a new understanding of rights already in the Constitution. Bingham maintained that, â€Å"The†¦equal protection of each [in] those sacred rights which are as universal and indestructible as the human race†¦are by this Constitution guaranteed†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ã¢â‚¬  The guarantee to which Bingham was referring is contained in the Fifth†¦show more content†¦This statement encapsulates why the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment found it necessary to include that, â€Å"No state shall†¦deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equa l protection of the laws.† Bingham’s reading of the Constitution already incorporated this point, but Rogers’ certainly did not, so by placing it in the Fourteenth Amendment, the framers ensured beyond all doubt that the right of all citizens to equal protection of the laws would be part of any subsequent reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Fourteenth Amendment accomplished three important things in terms of providing equal protection of the laws. These three things, which are found in Sections 1 and 5, were providing a definition of citizenship, declaring what protections states were required to give to their citizens, and giving the federal government broad power to take action against states that did not provide the necessary protections to their citizens. While it might at first seem superfluous, one of the most important parts of the Fourteenth Amendment was that it provided a definition of who was a citizen of the United States. However, in the infamous Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Taney had held that, â€Å"A free negro of the African race†¦ is not a ‘citizen’ within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States,† and thus, only whites were entitled to constitutional rights. The