14th Amendment Ratified, Guaranteeing Equal Protection

The 14th Amendment, ratified July 9, 1868, established birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection of the laws, and reduced congressional representation for states that disenfranchised male citizens. Its Section 1 repudiated Dred Scott. However, the Amendment's promises were systematically undermined by Supreme Court decisions: the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) narrowly defined 'privileges or immunities,' US v. Cruikshank (1876) held the federal government could not protect citizens from private violence, and the Civil Rights Cases (1883) struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 — rendering the Amendment largely inoperative for Black Americans for nearly a century.