The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship

This book presents the history behind a revolution in American liberty: the 1868 addition of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This exhaustively researched book follows the evolution in public understanding of "the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States," from the early years of the Constitution to the critical national election of 1866. For the first 92 years of our nation's history, nothing in the American Constitution prevented states from abridging freedom of speech, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or denying the right of peaceful assembly. The suppression of freedom in the southern states convinced the Reconstruction Congress and the supporters of the Union to add an amendment forcing the states to respect the rights announced in the first eight amendments. But rather than eradicate state autonomy altogether, the people embraced the Fourteenth Amendment that expanded the protections of the Bill of Rights and preserved the Constitution's original commitment to federalism and the principle of limited national power.

Author: Kurt T. Lash
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 04/07/2014
Pages: 326
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781107023260

About the Author
Lash, Kurt T.: - Kurt T. Lash holds the Guy Raymond Jones Chair in Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. A graduate of Yale Law School, Lash has served as the Chair of the Association of American Law Schools' Section on Constitutional Law, and his work has been cited by state and federal courts of all levels, including the United States Supreme Court. He has authored numerous articles and books on constitutional history and law; his work has been published by the Stanford Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, and The Chicago Law Review Online. He is the author of The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment (2009) and the forthcoming edited collection of historical materials, The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents.