Law Commons^™

Deconstructing The First Reconstruction Act, Or Why The Former-Confederate States Never Legally Ratified The Fourteenth Amendment, Abraham M. Howland

Abraham M Howland

The First Reconstruction Act (passed on March 2, 1867) was a crucial piece of legislation in our nation's history that effectively forced the legislatures of ten former-confederate states to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment. This paper begins by presenting and evaluating four principle arguments against the constitutionality of the First Reconstruction Act. Following this analysis of the Act’s constitutionality, this paper proceeds to argue that even if none of these constitutional objections is found persuasive, then precisely because of the terms of the First Reconstruction Act itself, the former-confederate states could not have ratified the Fourteenth Amendment in accordance with the …