Transcript: The Fourteenth Amendment - Part I

NARRATOR: The carnage that Oliver Wendell Holmes had witnessed was only a small window on the enormity of the Civil War. When it was over, 600,000 men had perished. But the Union held. And the Constitution, like the nation, was reborn.

WEINBERG: The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments together, but above all the Fourteenth Amendment, is the fruit of the Civil War. It is what all those brave men fought for and died for.

AMAR: The 14th Amendment says the federal government is gonna protect your citizenship even in your state. The federal government is gonna protect you against your own state. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.

KOBYLKA: The thing about the Fourteenth Amendment is it's written in general terms. It's not couched in racial terms. It's not couched in gender terms. It's couched in universal terms. Citizens have privileges and immunities. People have rights to equal protection and due process. So, while it is historically tied to the Reconstruction Acts at the time, the language of the Fourteenth Amendment admits of a broader range of interpretation.