United States Constitution, Amendment XIV, 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 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.

Editorial note. Section 1 was framed in the aftermath of the Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment to secure the civil status and civil rights of the freedmen, to constitutionalize the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and to overrule Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), by defining birthright citizenship. It was drafted by the Joint Committee on Reconstruction and adopted by the Thirty-Ninth Congress.

Editorial note. Section 1 imposes four distinct restraints on the States: it establishes national and state citizenship, forbids abridgment of the privileges or immunities of national citizenship, guarantees procedural and substantive due process, and requires equal protection of the laws.

Editorial note. The four clauses operate independently. The Citizenship Clause defines who is a citizen. The Privileges or Immunities Clause forbids state abridgment of federal-citizenship rights. The Due Process Clause forbids state deprivations without adequate procedure and constrains substantive legislation touching fundamental rights. The Equal Protection Clause forbids state classifications that fail the applicable level of judicial scrutiny.

Editorial note. Section 1 regulates only state action. It has been construed to reach action by state and local governments and their instrumentalities, and by private actors where sufficient nexus with the State exists (state-action doctrine).

Editorial note. Foundational decisions include Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873) (narrowing the Privileges or Immunities Clause); United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898) (birthright citizenship); Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905) (substantive due process, since repudiated); Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) (equal protection; state-mandated segregation); Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967); Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190 (1976) (intermediate scrutiny); City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, 473 U.S. 432 (1985) (rational-basis review); Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976) (discriminatory intent requirement); McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010) (Second Amendment incorporation); Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023) (race-conscious admissions).

Editorial note. The Due Process Clause is the principal vehicle by which the Bill of Rights is incorporated against the States. The Equal Protection Clause governs state and local classifications by race, sex, national origin, alienage, illegitimacy, and, under rational-basis review, all other legislative distinctions.

Editorial note. Read together with U.S. Const. amend. XIII (abolition of slavery), amend. XV (voting rights regardless of race), amend. V (federal due process), and § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment (congressional enforcement power).

Editorial note. Section 1 is the constitutional source of most modern civil-rights litigation, of Bill of Rights incorporation against the States, and of judicial review of state legislation for procedural fairness and substantive equality.