Equal Protection Clause 14th Amendment Quote Quotes

When the 14th Amendment, equal protection clause was enacted, the galleries in the Senate were segregated. Now we have integration. ~ Arlen Specter

The 'takings' clause of the Fifth Amendment is for conservatives what the equal protection clause of the 14th is for liberals. ~ Michael Kinsley

There is no proportional representation requirement in the Equal Protection Clause. ~ Cass Sunstein

It wouldn't be fair to say that conservatives cherish property the way liberals cherish equality. But it would be fair to say that the takings clause is the conservatives' recipe for judicial activism just as they say liberals have misused the equal protection clause. ~ Michael Kinsley

When did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage? 1791? 1868, when the 14th Amendment was adopted? ~ Antonin Scalia

The Equal Rights Amendment would "turn holy wedlock into holy deadlock." ~ William Rehnquist

Ultimately, I think the Equal Protection Clause does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states. ~ Barack Obama

Laws that require equal protections reinforce the moral imperative of equality. ~ Hillary Clinton

Almost 100 years after women secured the right to vote in 1920 through the 19th Amendment, we still do not have equal rights under the Constitution. My question for the GOP candidates: Do you support the Equal Rights Amendment? ~ Jane Fonda

Is any blogger out there saying anything - do they deserve First Amendment protection? These are the issues of our times. ~ Lindsey Graham

I believe the equal rights amendment is a necessity of life for all citizens. The cabinet sometimes felt that I shouldn't be so outspoken. ~ Betty Ford

I think we ought to leave the law exactly the way it is, the 14th amendment. ~ Rick Scott

Pulling a crystalline, cogent rule out of the murk of the court's First Amendment, public forum, and Establishment Clause doctrine is an act of creation too complicated for mere mortals. ~ Dahlia Lithwick

Nothing in the 14th Amendment or in any other constitutional provision suggests that the president may usurp legislative power to prevent a violation of the Constitution. ~ Laurence Tribe

The South began acting in outright defiance of the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868, which granted the right to due process and equal protection to anyone born in the United States, and it ignored the Fifteenth Amendment of 1880, which guaranteed all men the right to vote. ~ Isabel Wilkerson

If the Constitution was a movie, the Preamble would be the trailer, the First Amendment the establishing shot, the 13th the crowd pleaser and the 14th the ultimate hero scene. ~ Henry Rollins

There is never a shortage anywhere of lawyers eager to attack the First Amendment, as though it were nothing more than a clause in a lease from a crooked slumlord. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

It's time to recognize that under the equal protection clause of the United States [Constitution], same-sex couples should have the same rights as anybody else. ~ Barack Obama

NoH8 on the Hill, NoH8 anywhere. No American, regardless of who they love, should be denied equal protection under the law. History is on our side and our march towards justice will prevail. ~ Xavier Becerra

I have very deep concern about the legacy of the Rehnquist court and its efforts to restrict congressional authority to enact legislation by adopting a very narrow view of several provisions of the Constitution, including the commerce clause and the 14th Amendment.This trend, I believe, if continued, would restrict and could even prevent the Congress from addressing major environmental and social issues of the future. ~ Dianne Feinstein

The Mafia's involvement with gay bars is ironic on so many levels. Macho guys ruled gangland but supported a subculture for nelly queens. Most mobsters were evil sociopaths motivated only by financial self-interest but nevertheless were doing a good thing in providing social spaces for the gay community. The mob was on the wrong side of the liquor laws by serving gay folk but on the right side of the 14th Amendment in arguing for equal protection. The Mafia exploited an oppressed community but advanced the gay cause. ~ Phillip Crawford Jr.

Civil union is less than marriage. Marriage is a sacred and valued institution and ought to be afforded equal protection. ~ James McGreevey

The First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights in the United States Constitution were being violated in Albany again and again freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, the equal protection of the laws I could count at least 30 such violations. Yet the president, sworn to uphold the Constitution, and all the agencies of the United States government at his disposal, were nowhere to be seen. ~ Howard Zinn

My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. ~ Edmund Burke

If those who wrote and ratified the 14th Amendment had imagined laws restricting immigration - and had anticipated huge waves of illegal immigration - is it reasonable to presume they would have wanted to provide the reward of citizenship to the children of the violators of those laws? Surely not. ~ George Will

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. ~ Alice Paul

For Indigenous Australians, equal rights and citizenship have not always translated into full participation in Australian society. All Indigenous Australians have only been counted in the census since the 1967 Referendum. Even so, State protection and welfare laws continued to control the lives of Indigenous Australians and denied them equal rights, well into the 1970's. ~ Jackie Huggins

Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. ~ Alice Paul

I'm a big supporter of the Second Amendment. But I think I have a First Amendment right not to be shot. ~ Michael Nutter

The Court is making the preposterous assumption that the People of the United States somehow silently redefined marriage in 1868 when they ratified the 14th Amendment. ~ Ted Cruz

Our First Amendment rights are not given to us by the government but are rights we inherently possess. The government cannot use subsequent amendments to limit First Amendment rights. The Free Exercise Clause is both an individual and a collective liberty protecting a right to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. Therefore, we strongly support the freedom of Americans to act in accordance with their religious beliefs, not only in their houses of worship, but also in their everyday lives. ~ Republican Party

We need uniform protection of traditional marriage. You can't have different definitions on something as fundamental as marriage. The Marriage Protection Amendment is the only solution to this problem. ~ Ernest Istook

The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal. ~ Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

I'll bet you want to know how a person like Stocky can be thrown into a debtors' prison, something this country outlawed about two hundred years ago. Right?" Samantha slowly nodded. Mattie continued, "More than likely, you're also certain that throwing someone in jail because he cannot pay a fine or a fee violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. And, you are no doubt familiar with the 1983 Supreme Court decision, the name escapes me right now, in which the Court ruled that before a person can be thrown in jail for not paying a fine it must be proven that he or she was willfully not paying. In other words, he could pay but he refused. All this and more, right? ~ John Grisham

If every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, then he is free to drop connection with the state-to relinquish its protection, and to refuse paying toward its support. ~ Herbert Spencer

No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms. ~ Thomas Jefferson

No one understands that the First Amendment is only important if you are going to offend somebody. If you're not going to offend somebody, you don't need protection of the First Amendment. ~ Larry Flynt

In their rules there was only one clause: Do what you will. ~ Francois Rabelais

My greatest disappointment in all the projects I worked on during the White House years was the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment to be ratified ... Why all the controversy and why such difficulty in giving women the protection of the Constitution that should have been theirs long ago? ~ Rosalynn Carter

I liked the name of the amendment. I couldn't help feeling uneasy that the church was opposing something with a name as beautiful as the Equal Rights Amendment. ~ Sonia Johnson

The men who wrote the First Amendment religion clause did not view paid legislative chaplains and opening prayers as a violation of that amendment ... the practice of opening sessions with prayer has continued without interruption ever since that early session of Congress. It can hardly be thought that in the same week the members of the first Congress voted to appoint and pay a chaplain for each House and also voted to approve the draft of the First Amendment ... (that) they intended to forbid what they had just declared acceptable. ~ Warren E. Burger

The legal bias for special protection for women has begun to wreak havoc with the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection. ~ Warren Farrell

The Supreme Court had the choice not only which way to rule, pro- or anti-gay marriage rights, but also how they were going to rule. They could have ruled just federalism, saying, "This isn't a matter for federal; this isn't a federal issue at all. States should decide it." Or they could decide it on equal protection grounds and say that, "Gay discrimination is wrong." ~ Barack Obama

All men have an equal right to the free development of their faculties; they have an equal right to the impartial protection of the state; but it is not true, it is against all the laws of reason and equity, it is against the eternal nature of things. ~ Victor Cousin

Regulated" rights are not rights. They are niceties and platitudes intended to keep the populace thinking their individual autonomy is respected by their government. ~ A.E. Samaan

Recent school shootings have lured ill-informed Americans into a war on our Second Amendment guarantees, led by the nation's tyrants and their useful idiots ... The Second Amendment was given to us as protection against tyranny by the federal government and the Congress of the United States. ~ Walter E. Williams

In this session, bills on merchant shipping amendment, motor vehicles amendment and the constitutional amendment bill for goods and services tax were introduced in the Lok Sabha ~ Anonymous

New Rule: Gay marriage won't lead to dog marriage. It is not a slippery slope to rampant inter-species coupling. When women got the right to vote, it didn't lead to hamsters voting. No court has extended the equal protection clause to salmon. And for the record, all marriages are "same sex" marriages. You get married, and every night, it's the same sex. ~ Bill Maher

The First Amendment was designed to allow for disruption of business as usual. It is not a quiet and subdued amendment or right. ~ Naomi Wolf

Every public elementary school ought to welcome Good News Clubs. Parents appreciate them; children love them; and the First Amendment protects them. The First Amendment requires that similar groups be provided with equal treatment. Religious speech is not a disability. It is our preeminent freedom. ~ Mathew Staver

The debate about the war seems pretty robust and free. Many publications, from the New Yorker to the Nation, feel perfectly comfortable printing anti-American articles and that's fine. That's what the First Amendment is all about. ~ Rich Lowry

A woman's best protection is a little money of her own. ~ Clare Boothe Luce

The Congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances. ~ Michel, 14th Prince Of Ligne

The relevant part of the First Amendment here prohibits the making of any law, quote, "abridging the freedom of speech." And it's pretty well-established that speech comes in many forms. ~ Laura Sydell

I want to regain my First Amendment rights. ~ Laura Schlessinger

To uphold a tenet that contradicts reason is to undermine one's credibility. To contradict empirical evidence is a still greater fallacy. ~ The 14th Dalai Lama

In 'United States v. Brignoni-Ponce,' the Court concluded that it was permissible under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for the police to use race as a factor in making decisions about which motorists to stop and search. In that case, the Court concluded that the police could take a person's Mexican appearance into account when developing reasonable suspicion that a vehicle may contain undocumented immigrants. The Court said that "the likelihood that any person of Mexican ancestry is an alien is high enough to make Mexican appearance a relevant factor." Some commentators have argued that 'Brignoni-Ponce' may be limited to the immigration context; the Court might not apply the same principle to drug-law enforcement. It is not obvious what the rational basis would be for limiting overt race discrimination by police to immigration. The likelihood that a person of Mexican ancestry is an "alien" could not be significantly higher than the likelihood that any black person is a drug criminal. ~ Michelle Alexander

Why on earth do you carry a mirror around with you?"
"It's purely a defensive device. We seldom quarrel, and this is one of the reasons. Can you imagine yourself getting all worked up and contorted and illogical and then coming face to face with yourself, looking at yourself exactly as you look to everyone else? ~ Theodore Sturgeon

The women's liberation movement of today in America, in its most oceanic sense, is a wish by women to be liked for something other than their reproductive abilities, especially since the planet is harrowingly overpopulated. And the rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment by male state legislators is this clear statement by men, in my opinion: "We're sorry, girls, but your reproductive abilities are about all we can really like you for."

The truth. ~ Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Women are the guardians of morality. ~ Michel, 14th Prince Of Ligne

Even beauty may present a prism wearying to the eye. ~ Michel, 14th Prince Of Ligne

The bells will ring and the marriages will begin. And it's a great day in our state for equal protection under the law for all people. ~ Kamala Harris

The way that same-sex marriage should reach the federal level is that it absolutely should be decided by the Supreme Court as quickly as possible. It's a 14th Amendment issue. There's no argument about it. ~ Tony Kushner

The Republican Party supported the Equal Rights Amendment before the Democratic Party did. But what happened was that a lot of very right-wing Democrats, after the civil rights bill of 1964, left the Democratic Party and gradually have taken over the Republican Party. ~ Gloria Steinem

Full participation in government and society has been a basic right of the country symbolizing the full citizenship and equal protection of all. ~ Charles B. Rangel

The First Amendment was not intended to withdraw the Christian religion as a whole from the protection of Congress. ~ Joseph Story

The Second Amendment only protects the people who want all the guns they can have. The rest of us, we've got no Second Amendment. What are we supposed to do? ~ Louise Slaughter

The language of the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws did not change between 1896 and 1954, and it would be very hard to say that the obvious facts on which 'Plessy' was based had changed. ~ David Souter

The 14th Amendment was recognized right away to be problematic. The concept of person was both too narrow and too broad, and the courts went to work to overcome both of those flaws. ~ Noam Chomsky

I should like to enflame the whole world with my taste for gardening. There is no virtue that I would not attribute to the man who lives to project and execute gardens. ~ Michel, 14th Prince Of Ligne

The Second Amendment is not really a right. ~ Rosie O'Donnell

The First Amendment is very important, but it's not everything. ~ Anthony Lewis

Use of a mentally ill person's involuntary confession is antithetical to the notion of fundamental fairness embodied in the due process clause. ~ William J. Brennan Jr.

That's in the First Amendment? ~ Christine O'Donnell

The First Amendment is crucial. Of course it is. So are all the others. And the Second Amendment is the one that guarantees that people can bear arms to protect themselves. ~ Charlton Heston

The most happy women within their homes are those who have married sensible men. The latter suffer themselves to be governed with so much the more pleasure, as they are always masters of themselves. ~ Michel, 14th Prince Of Ligne

And now, in the interest of equal time, here is a message from the National Institute of Pancakes: It reads, and I quote, Fuck waffles. ~ George Carlin

The First Amendment applies to rogues and scoundrels. You don't lose your First Amendment rights because of a sleazy personality, or even for having committed a crime. Felons in jail are protected by the First Amendment. ~ Naomi Wolf

All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection. ~ James K. Polk

Harry Potter's like Santa Clause: something you can't see but wish was real so badly that you end up believing in it. ~ Emma Watson

All children should be welcomed into the world and protected by the law. As President, I would immediately repeal President Clinton's five executive orders that promote abortion. I support a human life bill that defines unborn children as persons under the 14th Amendment. I will vigorously defend the pro-life plank in the Republican platform. ~ Gary Bauer

People would rather be equal thank free. ~ Ljupka Cvetanova

We must have our freedom now. We must have the right to vote. We must have equal protection of the law. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

After the church ceased to exist, an outfit calling itself the First Amendment Protection Society, Inc. - the largest operator of adult bookstores, topless bars, Internet porn sites, and karaoke cocktail lounges in the United States - intimidated ~ Dean Koontz

We are going to fight to pass the long over-due Equal Rights Amendment. ~ Bernie Sanders

Why do people carry guns? Protection, right? To protect me and myself. Whether it's home protection or street protection. ~ Snoop Dogg

When they took the Fourth Amendment, I was silent because I don't deal drugs. When they took the Sixth Amendment, I kept quiet because I know I'm innocent. When they took the Second Amendment, I said nothing because I don't own a gun. Now they've come for the First Amendment, and I can't say anything at all. ~ Tim Freeman

When you sign with a major label there is no guarantee that they are going to release it either unless you have a guarantee clause or a marketing clause. ~ Michael Sweet

The Fourteenth Amendment repudiated the prewar Dred Scott decision by declaring that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" were citizens. It also seemed to make a powerful statement for racial equality, severely limiting "states' rights": 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. ~ Howard Zinn

The framers gave us the Second Amendment not so we could go deer or duck hunting but to give us a modicum of protection against congressional tyranny. ~ Walter E. Williams

If the Bill of Rights was intended to place strict limits on federal power and protect individual and locality from the national government the 14th Amendment effectively defeated that purpose by placing the power to enforce the Bill of Rights in federal hands, where it was never intended to be. ~ Ilana Mercer

I don't hate the government. I don't think the Second Amendment is being infringed upon. ~ Henry Rollins

Life has meaning until the weight of moments is carried by the protection, encouragement, nurturing, presence and love of a mother. ~ Shah Asad Rizvi

As to the media, they are protected by the First Amendment, as they should be. ~ L. Neil Smith

I am a 5'1 petite female. My pistol is my equalizer. ~ Gina Loudon

I strongly believe that the Second Amendment creates an individual right to possess and use guns for purposes of both hunting and self-defense. ~ Cass Sunstein

In later years, Paul would draft the Equal Rights Amendment, which read, simply, "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction;", it would be introduced to every Congressional session from 1923 until 1972, when it finally passed but was not ratified by the states. (It has been reintroduced, though never passed, in every session since 1982). ~ Rebecca Traister

You were born to win. ~ Troy Clark

I didn't know that President Bush would endorse a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. ~ Mary Cheney

I'll do anything to pass the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment], even if it means wearing babydoll nightgowns and padded bras, if that will make people less afraid. ~ Joan Hackett