Civil War Amendments

Examples of Civil War Amendments in the following topics:

• The Civil War Amendments

  • The Civil War Amendments protected equality for emancipated slaves by banning slavery, defining citizenship, and ensuring voting rights.
  • Known collectively as the Civil War Amendments, they were designed to ensure the equality for recently emancipated slaves.
  • This contrasted with the pre-Civil War compromise that counted enslaved people as three-fifth in representation enumeration.
  • Even after the 14th Amendment, native people not paying taxes were not counted for representation.
  • These methods were employed around the country to undermine the Civil War Amendments and set the stage for Jim Crow conditions and for the Civil Rights movement.

• The 15th Amendment

  • The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits states from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's race.
  • There was an impressive surge in political participation after the Civil War, due largely to the Reconstruction acts.
  • In the first post-Civil War legislature in South Carolina was 87 blacks to 40 whites.
  • "The Fifteenth Amendment", an 1870 print celebrating the passage of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in February 1870, and the advancements that African-Americans had made as a result of the Civil War.
  • State the group of citizens extended protection by the 15th Amendment

• The First Amendment

  • The First Amendment to the US Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights, and protects core American civil liberties.
  • The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights and protects American civil liberties.
  • Anti-war protests during World War I gave rise to several important free speech cases related to sedition and inciting violence.
  • United States the Supreme Court held that an anti-war activist did not have a First Amendment right to speak out against the draft.
  • Compare and contrast civil rights with civil liberties with respect to the First Amendment

• The Third Amendment

  • The Third Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits, in peacetime or wartime, the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner's consent.
  • No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.
  • The Third Amendment protects citizens against the quartering of soldiers in private homes.

• The Fifth Amendment, Self-Incrimination, and Double Jeopardy

  • The Fifth Amendment to the U.S.
  • The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure.
  • The Fifth Amendment protects witnesses from being forced to incriminate themselves.
  • Magna Carta is one of the major documents in British history that set forth legal precedents that would later be interpreted as protecting the civil rights of English subjects
  • Explain the key provisions of the Fifth Amendment, including self-incrimination and double jeopardy.

• The Rights of the Accused

  • An important postwar case was the Civil Rights Cases (1883), in which the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was at issue.
  • Civil rights are considered to be natural rights.
  • Due to the incorporation of the Bill of Rights, all of these provisions apply equally to criminal proceedings in state courts, with the exception of the Grand Jury Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Vicinage Clause of the Sixth Amendment, and (maybe) the Excessive Bail Clause of the Eighth Amendment.
  • The mural on the 'International Wall' depicts Frederick Douglass (1815-1895), a former slave who became one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement which fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War.
  • Douglass later served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed voting rights and other civil liberties for blacks.

• Freedom of the Press

  • Minnesota used the 14th Amendment to apply the freedom of the press to the states.
  • In 1861, four newspapers in New York City were all given a presentment by a Grand Jury of the United States Circuit Court for "frequently encouraging the rebels by expressions of sympathy and agreement. " This started a series of federal prosecutions of newspapers throughout the northern United States during the Civil War which printed expressions of sympathy for southern causes or criticisms of the Lincoln Administration.
  • There are other critiques that claim the "war on terror" has been a pretext for further restrictions on free press.
  • The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees Americans the right to a free press.
  • Freedom of the press is a primary civil liberty guaranteed in the First Amendment.

• The Twenty-Seven Amendments of the U.S. Constitution

  • While originally the amendments applied only to the federal government, most of their provisions have since been held to apply to the states by way of the Fourteenth Amendment.
  • The 14th specifies the post-Civil War requirements and notes that freed slaves are citizens.

• The Seventh Amendment

  • The Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the original Bill of Rights, codifies the right to a jury trial in certain civil cases, and asserts that cases may not be re-examined by another court.

• Incorporation Doctrine

  • The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments.
  • The Fourteenth Amendment has vastly expanded civil rights protections and is cited in more litigation than any other amendment to the U.S.
  • All of the provisions of Amendment I and Amendment II have been incorporated against the state, while the Third Amendment has not yet been incorporated (the Third Amendment refers to the prohibition on quartering of soldiers in civilian homes).
  • Amendment VII, right to a jury trial in civil cases, has been held not to be applicable to the states.
  • Amendment VIII, the right to jury trial in civil cases has been held not to be incorporated against the states, but protection against "cruel and unusual punishments" has been incorporated against the states.