The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment : Its Letter and Spirit

A Federalist Notable Book“An important contribution to our understanding of the 14th Amendment.”-Wall Street Journal“By any standard an important contribution…A must-read.”-National Review“The most detailed legal history to date of the constitutional amendment that changed American law more than any before or since…The corpus of legal scholarship is richer for it.”-Washington ExaminerAdopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment profoundly changed the Constitution, giving the federal judiciary and Congress new powers to protect the fundamental rights of individuals from being violated by the states.Yet, the Supreme Court has long misunderstood or ignored the original meaning of its key Section I clauses. Barnett and Bernick contend that the Fourteenth Amendment must be understood as the culmination of decades of debate about the meaning of the antebellum Constitution.In the course of this debate, antislavery advocates advanced arguments informed by natural rights, the Declaration of Indepe