What Are The Basic Purposes Of The Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection & Due Process Clauses?

Included in the Fourteenth Amendment are two very important clauses. These clauses are the "equal protection" and "due process of law" clauses. Both of these concepts play an instrumental role in the well being of the common American man. In addition, they both deal with issues regarding the fairness of law. The "due process of law" deals with the government fulfilling its responsibilities in trials, while the "equal protection clause" concerns equality in peoples' lives under the Constitution.

The thought of "due process of law" is first mentioned in the Fourteenth Amendment near the beginning when it states: "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This can be explained as a man's rights to a fair governing. It is one of the oldest constitutional principles and the "due process" refers to the requirement that the actions of

In America there are two different types of due process of law, "procedural due process of law" and "substantive due process of law". Procedural due process of law means the government must use fair procedures in fulfilling its responsibilities. It requires that the procedures used by government in making, applying, interpreting, and enforcing law be reasonable and consistent. Substantive due process of law came in later and differed slightly from procedural due process. It made a requirement that the government could not make laws that apply to situations in which the government has no business interfering. It requires that the "substance" or purpose of laws be constitutional. The difference between procedural and substantive is that procedural says nothing about interference in certain cases, while substantive does.

The Fourteenth Amendment continues and later talks about the "equal protection clause". It states that no state may "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." By this provision the amendment gave a new importance to the principle of equality in the Constitution and peoples' lives. The Fourteenth Amendment's original purpose was to create a society in which all people were treated equally b

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