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Amendment XIV, Section 1
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Perhaps the most significant and far-reaching amendments to the Constitution, the Fourteenth Amendment is viewed by many scholars and jurists as the provision of the Constitution that has brought the principles enunciated in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence into the realm of constitutional law. The words of the preamble of the Declaration -- ''that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'' -- are purely exhoratory; they were important rhetorical ly in defining American purposes as they declared to the colonies' independence from Great Britain, but they do not have the force of law. At the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment is the stipulation that all Americans born or naturalized in the United States, including the newly freed slaves, are citizens of the United States, and that no state may make or enforce any law that shall infringe on the rights of American citizens, including those unalienable rights of ''life, liberty or property'' without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment's promise that all persons are guaranteed.] ''equal protection of the laws'' would prove an important mechanism by which the Supreme Court, in a series of rulings in the twentieth century, would articulate a uniform standard by which many of the rights spelled out in the Bill of rights would be guaranteed to all citizens of the states.
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