Civil Liberties and Political Equality Assignment
Option 1
The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and the Fourteenth Amendment dealt with similar concepts pertaining to rights and liberties, but used different approaches and had a different scope. The Fourteenth Amendment, added to the U.S constitution in 1868, addressed issues of citizenship, and equal protection under the U.S law for all citizens (Barnett et al., 2021). The law granted citizenship to everyone born or naturalised in the United States, and prohibited states from denying anyone liberty, life, or property without due processes followed. The primary goal of this amendment was to ensure that everyone in the United States, despite their race, received equal treatment under the law. Civil Liberties and Political Equality Assignment
Conversely, the ERA mostly addressed gender equality. The amendment provides that no one should be denied equal rights under the law, on account of their sex (Suk, 2022). The primary goal of this law was to ensure there were equal rights for women.
ORDER HERE A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
The two amendments guaranteed equal treatment of persons under the law. However, ERA focused on gender equality, while the Fourteenth Amendment focused on racial inequality. ERA was introduced as women were previously not afforded legal protections, as men were. Conversely, the Fourteenth Amendment was a response to the systemic discrimination and segregation against African Americans due to the slavery institution at the time. Civil Liberties and Political Equality Assignment
Another difference between the two is that the Fourteenth Amendment was broad and addressed various issues such as citizenship and equal protection of rights and liberties under the law for everyone, despite their race. ERA was a more specific amendment targeting gender equality. The Fourteenth Amendment was also adopted into the U.S constitution, while ERA is yet to.
References
Barnett, R. E., Bernick, E. D., & Oakes, J. (2021). The original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its letter and spirit. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Suk, J. C.-hye. (2022). We the women: The unstoppable mothers of the equal rights amendment. Skyhorse Publishing. Civil Liberties and Political Equality Assignment