Essay On 14th Amendment

The 14th Amendment is one of the most influential Amendments in the history of our nation. The amendment defines what it means to be a US citizen and protects certain rights of the people. There are three important “clauses” in the 14th amendment, each of which are still important today. The clauses are; the Citizenship Clause, which gave individuals who were born in the United States, especially African Americans at the time Citizenship, the Due Process Clause, which protects the first amendment rights of the people from being taken away by any government without due process, the third and final clause is the Equal protection clause, this clause states that there may be no discrimination against people by the law. The 14th amendment was important

Ohio is a case, which from the start should not have happened. The prosecution was a Ms. Dollree Mapp. On May 23rd, 1957, police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, received an anonymous tip by phone that Virgil Ogletree, a numbers operator who was wanted for questioning in the bombing of rival numbers racketeer and future boxing promoter Don King's home three days earlier, might be found at Mapp's house, as well as illegal betting slips and equipment employed in the "California Gold" numbers operation set up by Mapp's boyfriend Edward Keeling. Officers went to her home and demanded access to it, Ms. Mapp after consulting her lawyer by phone, refused to admit the officers without a search warrant. The officers left leaving one behind to watch the house from across the street. Several hours later more officers arrived and with a piece of paper they said was a warrant, after she did not come to the door the officers broke down several doors, entered the home and were confronted by Ms. Mapp. She was handcuffed after she took their “warrant” and put it in her dress. Court transcripts states, “The search spread to the rest of the second floor including the child's bedroom, the living room, the kitchen and a dinette. The basement of the building and a trunk found therein were also searched. The obscene materials for possession of which she was ultimately convicted were discovered in the course of that widespread search” ("USSC case Mapp v. Ohio"). At her trial no warrant