What Does the 14th Amendment Say and Protect?

The 14th Amendment makes every person born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, a citizen, and it bars state and local governments from denying anyone due process of law or the equal protection of the laws. Ratified in 1868, it also covers House apportionment, disqualification from office for insurrection, the public debt, and Congress's power to enforce the amendment by statute. This guide explains each section in plain English.

What does the 14th Amendment say?

Section 1 does most of the work. Here it is, from the National Archives' text of the Constitution: "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 State 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." Four separate promises sit inside those two sentences: who counts as a citizen, a privileges or immunities guarantee that courts rarely use, due process, and equal protection. Sections 2 through 5 cover House apportionment, disqualification for insurrection, the public debt, and Congress's power to enforce all of it.

Who is a citizen under the 14th Amendment?

The Citizenship Clause sets two conditions: birth or naturalization in the United States, and being "subject to the jurisdiction" of the country. The Supreme Court settled that phrase more than a century ago. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), it held that a child born here to Chinese immigrant parents was a citizen at birth. The clause, the Court said, was declaratory of the older rule that birth on American soil, under American law, made a person a citizen.

The birthright citizenship dispute in 2026

That question returned in 2026. On January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14160 declared that children born here to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States, and so are not citizens. Parents sued, and a federal district court blocked the order. The Supreme Court decided the case as Trump v. Barbara, No. 25-365, on June 30, 2026. It held that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Citizenship Clause. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion, four other justices joined it, and four filed opinions dissenting in whole or in part. As of September 2026 that ruling is the governing law. See our article on birthright citizenship for more.

What is the privileges or immunities clause?

The second sentence of Section 1 bars states from making laws that "abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." On paper that sounds broad. In practice it has done very little since the Slaughter-House Cases (1873), where the Court read the clause narrowly and limited it to a short list of rights tied to national citizenship. Because of that, due process and equal protection carry almost all the weight Reconstruction-era lawmakers may have expected this clause to carry.

What does due process mean under the 14th Amendment?

Due process comes in two forms. Procedural due process means the government must give you notice and a chance to be heard before it takes your liberty or property, whether that is a driver's license or a seat in a public school. School suspensions and expulsions are a common example: a student is generally entitled to hear the accusation and respond before a longer suspension takes effect. Substantive due process asks a different question, whether the government had any legitimate reason to restrict a right at all.

The due process clause also does something less obvious: incorporation. The Bill of Rights originally restrained only the federal government. Over the twentieth century, the Court used this clause to apply most of those protections to state and local governments too. That is why a person questioned by city police has Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and why the Fourth Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches binds a county sheriff. Incorporation is not total. As the Court noted in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), the Fifth Amendment's grand jury requirement and the Seventh Amendment's civil jury right have never been applied to the states. Mapp v. Ohio (1961) applied the Fourth Amendment's exclusionary rule to state courts, so illegally seized evidence can be kept out of a state case. Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) required states to provide a lawyer to a defendant facing a felony charge who could not afford one. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) gave us the warning police read before questioning someone in custody, built on a privilege already applied to the states two years earlier.

What does equal protection require?

The Equal Protection Clause says a state cannot "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It does not promise identical treatment. It promises that when government treats people differently, it needs an adequate reason. Courts have built a rough framework for how strong that reason must be. That framework is judge-made doctrine, not language in the amendment. Classifications based on race or national origin draw the toughest review, called strict scrutiny, which asks for an interest of the highest order and a law narrowly tailored to it. Sex-based classifications draw a middle level of review. Most others, such as age or income, need only a rational basis. Courts do not always sort a case neatly into one of these levels, so treat them as a guide and not a formula.

This clause sits behind some of the most consequential rulings in American history. Brown v. Board of Education (1954) held that state-mandated school segregation violated equal protection. Loving v. Virginia (1967) struck down state bans on interracial marriage. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) held that the right to marry extends to same-sex couples, resting on due process and equal protection together.

What do sections 2 through 5 do?

Section 2 ties each state's number of House seats to its population, and it would cut a state's representation if it denied the vote to male citizens twenty-one years of age, except for participation in rebellion or other crime. The National Archives flags that the 26th Amendment changed that age, and later amendments extended voting rights far beyond the men Section 2 names. Section 3 bars a person from federal or state office if that person previously took an oath to support the Constitution as a member of Congress, an officer of the United States, a state legislator, or a state executive or judicial officer, and then engaged in insurrection or gave aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States. Congress may lift that disability by a two-thirds vote of each House. Section 4 says the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned, and voids debts incurred in aid of rebellion and claims for the loss of enslaved people. Section 5 gives Congress power to enforce the amendment by "appropriate legislation," which it used to pass the civil rights statute described below.

Section 3 returned to the headlines in 2024, when the Colorado Supreme Court ordered a presidential candidate off that state's primary ballot on insurrection grounds. In Trump v. Anderson, No. 23-719, decided March 4, 2024, the Supreme Court held that the Constitution makes Congress, not the states, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates. It reversed the Colorado ruling. The decision is narrower than summaries suggest. It did not decide whether the candidate engaged in insurrection. Read the opinion on the Supreme Court's website.

Section	What it says	Why it matters today
Section 1	Defines citizenship and bars states from denying privileges or immunities, due process, or equal protection	The basis for most rights claims against state and local government
Section 2	Sets how House seats are apportioned	The starting point for counting people when seats are divided
Section 3	Disqualifies certain former oath-takers who engaged in insurrection from holding office	At issue in the Court's 2024 ruling on state enforcement
Section 4	Says the validity of the public debt shall not be questioned, and voids rebellion-era debts	Protects the standing of federal debt authorized by law
Section 5	Gives Congress power to enforce the amendment through legislation	The power behind federal civil rights laws like 42 U.S.C. § 1983

What this means for you in practice

The 14th Amendment restrains government, not private parties. A privately owned store or a private employer is not bound by it directly, though other laws prohibit some private discrimination. It applies to state action: a police department, a public school, a state agency, or a county jail. If a state or local official violates your due process or equal protection rights, federal law may give you a way to sue. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, any "person" who, under color of state law, deprives someone of a right secured by the Constitution "shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress." Courts have long debated who counts as a "person" there, so whether a given defendant can be sued depends on who it is. The statute also carries a written exception: against a judicial officer acting in a judicial capacity, an injunction is not available unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable.

That right to sue has another limit. Officials frequently raise qualified immunity as a defense, which can shield a government employee unless the specific right was already clearly established by prior decisions when the violation happened. That defense is a common reason civil rights suits against officials are dismissed before trial.

What to do if you think your 14th Amendment rights were violated

1. Write down what happened as soon as you can: the date and place, plus the name or badge number of the government employee involved.
2. Confirm the person works for a government agency. A 14th Amendment claim targets government action, not a private business.
3. Collect supporting records, such as a police report or a written agency decision.
4. Check your state's filing deadline for a civil rights claim. Deadlines vary by state and can be short.
5. Talk to a licensed attorney in your state about whether a federal civil rights lawsuit fits your situation.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules change and vary by state, so check the official source or talk with a licensed attorney in your state about your situation.

The law behind your rights

During any police encounter the Fourth Amendment limits stops and searches to those backed by reasonable suspicion or consent, the Fifth Amendment lets you stay silent, and the Fourteenth Amendment makes these protections apply to state and local police.

Constitutional basis: Fourth Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment. Your state constitution may add further protections.

Key court cases:

• Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968) — Police may briefly stop and frisk a person only with reasonable, articulable suspicion of crime under the Fourth Amendment.
• Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) — Before custodial interrogation police must warn suspects of the right to remain silent and to counsel under the Fifth Amendment.
• Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429 (1991) — In a consensual encounter a person is free to refuse to answer questions or consent to a search and to terminate the encounter.

These are landmark federal cases that establish the rights described above. How they apply can depend on your state, the federal circuit you are in, and the specific facts of an encounter. This is general legal information, not legal advice.