Passed in 1868, the 14th Amendment was ratified to protect the rights of recently freed African Americans, but since then, it has been expanded by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Amendment granted citizenship to all individuals born or naturalized in the United States. It also prohibits states from denying "life, liberty or property, without due process of law," or denying equal protection of the law,
according to the Library of Congress.
The amendment has been cited in numerous Supreme Court cases.
Urgent: Do You Support Immigration Reform?
The first time the 14th Amendment was put on trial was in 1872 for what is known as the slaughterhouse cases. Louisiana created a partial monopoly on slaughterhouses, and competitors argued it was a violation of the 14th Amendment by creating involuntary servitude, but the
Supreme Court disagreed, according to Oyez. Here, they stated equal protection was to prevent discrimination against African Americans, and the due process clause simply placed the same restrictions on federal government in the Fifth Amendment onto the state governments.
More than a decade later in Elk v. Wilkins, an American Indian claimant was deemed not a citizen because he did not have complete and immediate allegiance to the United States,
according to The 14th Amendment, a website focusing on the Amendment.
Then the court decided in United States v. Wong Kim Ark that children born in the United States of foreign parents are citizens,
according to Cornell University Law School. The decision included reference to the work of the Chinese parents of Wong Kim Ark and their legal domicile in the states.
More recently, however, the questions of how the Amendment relates to illegal immigration has become pronounced. While a case on whether or not children born to undocumented individuals, commonly known as “anchor babies,” has not been brought to court, decisions have been made in relation to illegal aliens.
Tell Us: Should Illegals Be Allowed to Apply for US Citizenship?
In Plyler v. Doe in 1982, the court ruled funds going to school districts could not be withheld even if they are going toward the education of a child that did not come legally to the country,
according to Cornell University, extending jurisdiction of the 14th amendment to those not in the country legally.