To give the complete Amendment:
Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.
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.
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.
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.
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.
5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
For over 140 years we have taken this Amendment to the Constitution to mean something only for ex-slaves, but please read it again. This Amendment says nothing about skin color; it is all inclusive. Every citizen is equal and no state shall abridge or deny us our rights.
I keep reading that the only way to change the laws is to change the hearts of the majority. This is called mob rule, something that has no place in our society. The base majority does not have the Constitutional authority to grant or deny us our basic rights gained from the 14th Amendment.
This is why it is necessary for the courts to rule on marriage equality using the Constitution for guidance. It is also the reason Proposition #8 and all similar laws passed by the states must be ruled unconstitutional because anything else violates the oath every judge is sworn to uphold.
This is why the Congress must use its power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of the 14th Amendment. To do less is to violate their oaths of office.
And lastly, it is why President Obama MUST use his powers of enforcement to declare all measures that abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States illegal and void.
To do anything less is unConstitutional and unAmerican.
