The 14th Amendment Continues to Screw Up America

This one won’t win me any friends among some libertarian and conservative groups.

The 14th Amendment is one of the worst things to happen to America.

It was well intended, and as originally interpreted (and ratified) it would have allowed newly freed slaves access to the courts and would have protected their private property.

That was it.

Then the federal courts got involved, and now it has become a shadow constitution.

When Americans laughably state that the United States was founding in 1964, they are only partly wrong.

The federal courts have done a good job refounding the “nation.”

A recent piece by Jesse Merriam highlights the bizarre history of the Amendment. If we want to point out a real legal thorn in the effort to maintain federalism in America, this is it.

It didn’t have to be this way, and maybe if more lawyers and judges stood up to judicial stupidity, we could get back to some sanity in America.

Until then, we can continue to thank the 14th for just about every idiotic court ruling of the last eighty years. The “commerce clause” might come in a distant second.

I discuss the 14th on episode 563 of The Brion McClanahan Show.