Why was the Fourteenth Amendment important for limiting state governments?
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Correct answer: It placed federal constitutional protections against state violations of rights
Before the Fourteenth Amendment, many rights protections were mainly limits on the federal government. The amendment placed important restrictions on states and expanded federal authority to protect civil rights.
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More Reconstruction Amendments questions
- Which amendment is most directly connected to African American male suffrage during Reconstruction?
- Which right was not fully guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment?
- How did Southern states later undermine the Fifteenth Amendment?
- Which amendment gave Congress power to enforce the abolition of slavery through appropriate legislation?
- What do the enforcement clauses of the Reconstruction Amendments allow Congress to do?
- Which Reconstruction Amendment became the foundation for later cases involving school desegregation and equal rights?