14th Amendment Pros And Cons

When the new constitution was put into effect in 1789, the federal government was actually given power and had more of a say in society. The constitution gave the federal government powers, and limited that states’ powers. There are two amendments in the constitution that explains what the federal and state governments have the right to do. The tenth and the fourteenth amendment lay down the line for what the states can do and not do. Even though the federal government tells them what to do through the constitution, they give them rights as well. The tenth amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”(US Constitution). In other words, it says that any power that the government does not have, is given to the state. For example, states determine rules for marriages, DMV, voting, states taxes, and educational funding. But the states cannot deny any taxes levied by the government. Also the government has the right to declare war, but the states cannot.

The fourteenth amendment states, “forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”(US Constitution). The fourteenth amendment forces the states that any person has to be tried and convicted in order for them to have all their rights taken away. A person cannot put a person to death, or put them in jail, until they are proven guilty. States cannot just send a person to jail for ten years because they think the suspect killed a person, there needs to be a court process. The government is saying that the federal government, not the state, protects all rights of a