Fourteenth Amendment Commons^™

Privileges And Immunities Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Lucile Lomen

Washington Law Review

At the close of the Civil War, the federal government was faced with the serious problem of protecting the newly freed negro from restrictions which the state governments might see fit to impose upon him. The War had been won and the negro freed, but there was no power in the federal government which could insure his civil liberties against state action. The Bill of Rights formed a bulwark against invasion of personal rights by the federal government, but it had no application to other jurisdictions. It was to remedy this situation that the Fourteenth Amendment was proposed and adopted. …