Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Fourteenth Amendment
Slavery, Free Blacks And Citizenship, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Slavery, Free Blacks And Citizenship, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Law Faculty Publications
Reconstruction Amendments says about the nature of American citizenship. The essay is organized as follows. Part I of the essay explores citizenship and membership by discussing belonging-based citizenship and rights-based citizenship. Part II describes how American and African American citizenship were constructed prior to the passage of the Reconstruction Amendments. Part III notes a few cases to explain how the Reconstruction Amendment's jurisprudence has developed in the wake of Dred Scott v. Sandford' and possibly led to a tilt toward a rights-based citizenship rather than a somewhat more robust belonging-based citizenship.
Colorblindness, Race Neutrality, And Voting Rights, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Colorblindness, Race Neutrality, And Voting Rights, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Law Faculty Publications
The Reconstruction Amendments' guarantee of civil rights and political equality for racial minorities means that with respect to voting and representation, raceneutral results should be as much a constitutional imperative as colorblind process. As such, a colorblind electoral rule that unintentionally lessens the ability of a minority group to vote or to choose its candidate of choice should be deemed unconstitutional under the Fifteenth Amendment, not merely unlawful under the Voting Rights Act, unless the jurisdiction can provide a strong justification for the rule focused on why such a rule is reasonably necessary to safeguard the electoral process. This change …