The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment

The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment
ISBN-10
1108843158
ISBN-13
9781108843157
Series
The Second Founding
Category
History
Pages
170
Language
English
Published
2020-11-12
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
Ilan Wurman

Description

In The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment, Ilan Wurman provides an illuminating introduction to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment's famous provisions 'due process of law, ' 'equal protection of the laws, ' and the 'privileges' or 'immunities' of citizenship. He begins by exploring the antebellum legal meanings of these concepts, starting from Magna Carta, the Statutes of Edward III, and the Petition of Right to William Blackstone and antebellum state court cases. The book then traces how these concepts solved historical problems confronting framers of the Fourteenth Amendment, including the comity rights of free blacks, private violence and the denial of the protection of the laws, and the notorious abridgment of freedmen's rights in the Black Codes. Wurman makes a compelling case that, if the modern originalist Supreme Court interpreted the Amendment in 'the language of the law, ' it would lead to surprising and desirable results tod

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