The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

[MrScorpio]

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.
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 male 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 States 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.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. "Bounties" is pretty interesting.

including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion

[Bucky]

2. Reads like half the Republican caucus is in violation of Section 3

[DevonRex]

Gmta.

[ellenfl]

3. does this mean that the president doesn't have the power?

"Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

ellen fl

[MineralMan]

5. Pretty much. The authority to enforce is specificallly given to

Congress. Separation of powers.

[ellenfl]

15. that was my take on it when i first read the amendment. eom

[MineralMan]

4. Section 5 is especially relevant in the current crisis:

"Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article."

Note that the President is not mentioned with regard to enforcement of the provisions. Congress reserved to itself that authority. It's part of the Constitution, now. So, for the President to attempt to use this Amendment would be unconstitutional. Separation of powers.

[Old Codger]

6. Truman

Used it.......

[MineralMan]

7. No, actually he didn't. It was cited in the SCOTUS case, which had to do

with nationalizing steel companies in 1952, at the beginning of the Korean War. He lost that battle in the SCOTUS. He didn't mention it when taking the action.

BTW, that had absolutely nothing to do with debt ceilings. The debt ceiling was never raised during Truman's time as President.

[Old Codger]

16. ok

[ashling]

8. Section 5 specifically gives Congress the power to enforce

by approprtiate legislation, thus giving Congress wide latitude to legislate in addition to Article I powers that it already possessed. It does not, however, absolve the president of his duty.

The president has a duty to enforce every part of the Constitution. . . . including the 4th section of the 14th Amendment.

[Llewlladdwr]

9. So then, where in the 14th does it say that the valid debts of the United States MUST be paid?

Serious question. All the 14th says is that the validity of the lawful debt of the United States will not be questioned. It is silent on whether or not the debt will be paid.

[Igel]

13. Uphold, yes.

Enforce, no.

The Congress is Constitutionally authorized to write its own rules. If Congress is hamstrung by not passing rules when it first meets in a new session, the President doesn't have the authority to go in and write its rules for it.

The separation of powers is real. It can't be overriden when inconvenient without doing a lot of damage to the idea that we have to assume that the Constitution really means what it says.

The President has the obligation to uphold and enforce the laws as duly passed by Congress. The budget is one. The debt ceiling is another. He can do that, *and* not violate the spirit of the 14th amendment (sect. 4) while abiding by the spirit and text of the 14th amendment (sect. 5) just fine. Wriggling and arranging things to trigger Constitutional violations and a Constitutional crisis does *not* constitute upholding the Constitution, however.

[ashling]

14. I meant "uphold"

...the President doesn't have the authority to go in and write its rules for it.

I never suggested that he did.

[rucky]

17. So what happens if they don't?

who takes them to the mat?

That's what I never understood about the Constitution. Where are the teeth?

[Initech]

10. Re: Section 1

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States

Wouldn't this automatically make anti-gay marriage laws like Prop H(8) unconstitutional as they go against this very section?

[MrScorpio]

11. Excellent point

Why wasn't DOMA struck down because of this?

[Initech]

12. I've been wondering why DOMA was even allowed in the first place.