The civil rights amendments to the U.S. Constitution are seven amendments, ratified between 1865 and 1971, that abolished slavery, guaranteed equal protection and due process under state law, and progressively expanded who can vote. They are the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth (the Reconstruction Amendments), followed by the Nineteenth, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth, and Twenty-Sixth. Each required approval by two-thirds of both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states.1Constitution Annotated. Overview of Article V, Amending the Constitution
Thirteenth Amendment (1865): Ending Slavery
The Thirteenth Amendment permanently banned slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States and gave Congress the power to enforce that ban through legislation.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Thirteenth Amendment Ratified at the close of the Civil War, it was the first of three Reconstruction Amendments built to dismantle the legal framework that had sustained slavery.
The text carries one carve-out: it does not apply to labor imposed as punishment for a criminal conviction.2Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Thirteenth Amendment Critics argue that exception has permitted prison labor systems resembling the institution the amendment was meant to end. Several states have amended their own constitutions to close the exception: Colorado in 2018, Nebraska and Utah in 2020, and Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont in 2022.
Fourteenth Amendment (1868): Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection
The Fourteenth Amendment is the most far-reaching of the civil rights amendments.3National Archives. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution Its first section alone contains three guarantees that reshaped constitutional law — birthright citizenship, due process, and equal protection — along with a clause protecting the privileges or immunities of citizens. Together, these provisions shifted power from state governments toward the federal government and gave individuals new tools to challenge state discrimination.
Birthright Citizenship
The Citizenship Clause makes anyone born or naturalized in the United States a citizen of both the country and the state where they live.4Constitution Annotated. Intro.6.4 Civil War Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments) It was written specifically to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which had declared that people of African descent could not be United States citizens.5Justia. Dred Scott v. Sandford Putting birthright citizenship into the Constitution made that ruling permanently unenforceable.
Due Process and the Bill of Rights
The Due Process Clause bars states from taking away anyone’s life, liberty, or property without fair legal proceedings.4Constitution Annotated. Intro.6.4 Civil War Amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments) On its face, that reads as a procedural guarantee. In practice, the Supreme Court used it to do something much larger.
Before 1868, the Bill of Rights restrained only the federal government. The Court said so in Barron v. City of Baltimore in 1833, holding that the Fifth Amendment applied solely to federal action. A state could restrict speech or conduct searches without any constitutional constraint from the first ten amendments.
The Fourteenth Amendment changed that. Over more than a century of case-by-case decisions, the Court gradually “incorporated” individual protections from the Bill of Rights against the states through the Due Process Clause. The process, called selective incorporation, asked whether a particular right was essential to due process; if so, states had to respect it too.6Congress.gov. Application of the Bill of Rights to the States Through the Fourteenth Amendment
Nearly every protection in the Bill of Rights now applies to the states, including free speech, free exercise of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, protection against unreasonable searches, the right against self-incrimination, the right to counsel, and protection against cruel and unusual punishment. A few provisions remain unincorporated, including the Third Amendment’s restriction on quartering soldiers, the Fifth Amendment’s grand jury requirement, and the Seventh Amendment’s right to a civil jury trial.6Congress.gov. Application of the Bill of Rights to the States Through the Fourteenth Amendment
Equal Protection
The Equal Protection Clause requires every state to apply its laws equally to all people within its borders.3National Archives. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution It is the legal foundation for challenges to racial segregation, sex discrimination, and unequal treatment of almost every kind. Its most famous application came in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, where the Court unanimously held that racially segregated public schools were inherently unequal and dismantled the “separate but equal” doctrine.7Justia. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483
Courts apply different levels of scrutiny depending on the classification a law draws. Laws that distinguish people based on race or national origin face the toughest standard: the government must prove the classification serves a compelling interest and is narrowly tailored to achieve it. Classifications based on sex receive an intermediate level of review, requiring an important interest and a substantial connection between that interest and the classification. Everything else gets deferential review, where the government only needs to show a rational connection to a legitimate purpose.
Fifteenth Amendment (1870): Voting Rights Regardless of Race
The Fifteenth Amendment prohibits the federal government and every state from denying or restricting the right to vote based on race, color, or previous status as an enslaved person.8Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Fifteenth Amendment On paper, it enfranchised African American men in 1870. In practice, its promise went largely unfulfilled for nearly a century.
Southern states developed tactics to keep Black citizens from voting without mentioning race directly. Literacy tests required prospective voters to interpret complicated legal passages, with white registrars deciding who passed. Poll taxes charged fees many formerly enslaved people and their descendants could not afford. Grandfather clauses exempted anyone whose ancestors had voted before 1867, which effectively limited the exemption to white voters.9National Archives. Voting Rights Act (1965) Violence and intimidation filled whatever gaps the legal mechanisms left.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
Congress finally used the Fifteenth Amendment’s enforcement power with full force in 1965. The Voting Rights Act banned literacy tests and other screening devices, defined broadly to include any requirement that a person demonstrate reading ability, educational achievement, or moral character as a condition of voting.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 52 USC 10303 – Suspension of the Use of Tests or Devices It also authorized federal officials to oversee voter registration in areas with the worst records of discrimination.9National Archives. Voting Rights Act (1965)
The Act’s most powerful tool was preclearance. Jurisdictions with a history of discriminatory voting practices had to get advance approval from the Department of Justice or a federal court in Washington, D.C. before changing any voting rules. Discriminatory laws could be blocked before they ever took effect. Congress renewed and expanded the Act in 1970, 1975, and 1982.11National Archives. 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – Voting Rights
Preclearance After Shelby County
In 2013, the Supreme Court effectively dismantled preclearance. In Shelby County v. Holder, the Court struck down the formula Congress used to identify which jurisdictions needed federal oversight, ruling that it relied on decades-old data no longer reflecting current conditions.12Justia. Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 Preclearance itself was not eliminated, but without a valid coverage formula the requirement became unenforceable. Congress could pass a new formula but has not done so.
Challenges to discriminatory voting laws now depend almost entirely on after-the-fact litigation under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that discriminate based on race. Section 2 lawsuits happen one at a time, after a law has already gone into effect.
How Congress Enforces the Reconstruction Amendments
Each of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments grants Congress the power to enforce its protections through legislation.13Congress.gov. Fourteenth Amendment Section 5 Before Reconstruction, the Constitution primarily limited what the federal government could do. These enforcement clauses gave Congress affirmative authority to pass laws protecting individual rights against state interference.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 relied heavily on the Fourteenth Amendment’s enforcement clause, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 drew on both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth. The Supreme Court has held that Congress must act proportionally to the constitutional violations it identifies and cannot use the enforcement clauses to redefine the scope of the underlying rights.
Nineteenth Amendment (1920): Women’s Suffrage
The Nineteenth Amendment prohibits every level of government from denying or restricting the right to vote based on sex.14Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Nineteenth Amendment It was first formally introduced in Congress in 1878, and both chambers approved it in 1919 before ratification in 1920.15U.S. Senate. Woman Suffrage Centennial
The language mirrors the Fifteenth Amendment: a flat prohibition on denying the vote for a specified reason, paired with a congressional enforcement clause. Ratification enfranchised millions of women, though many women of color continued to face the same voter suppression tactics used against African American men under the Fifteenth Amendment. Full ballot access for all women depended on the same civil rights legislation that eventually enforced the Fifteenth Amendment’s promise.
Twenty-Third Amendment (1961): Presidential Electors for D.C.
Before 1961, residents of Washington, D.C. had no voice in presidential elections because the District is not a state. The Twenty-Third Amendment gave the District a number of presidential electors equal to what it would receive if it were a state, capped at the number held by the least populous state.16Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Third Amendment That cap currently limits the District to three electoral votes, though its population exceeds that of two states.
The amendment addresses presidential elections only. It did not give the District voting representation in Congress. D.C. residents elect a delegate to the House who can introduce legislation and vote in committee but cannot vote on the House floor, and the District has no Senate representation.
Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964): No Poll Taxes
The Twenty-Fourth Amendment banned poll taxes and other taxes as a condition of voting in federal elections.17Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Fourth Amendment Poll taxes had been an effective tool for suppressing turnout among low-income citizens, particularly African Americans in the South, and five states still imposed them at ratification.
The amendment applied only to federal elections, leaving states technically free to charge poll taxes for state and local contests. That loophole closed in 1966 when the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that conditioning the right to vote on any fee violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, whether the election is federal or state.18Library of Congress. Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, 383 U.S. 663 (1966) Between the amendment and the ruling, poll taxes disappeared from every election in the country.
Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971): Voting Age of 18
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment lowered the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 for all federal and state elections.19Congress.gov. U.S. Constitution – Twenty-Sixth Amendment The driving argument was that if 18-year-olds were old enough to be drafted and sent to Vietnam, they were old enough to vote for the government that sent them. Ratified on July 1, 1971, it was one of the fastest ratification processes in constitutional history.
Like the other civil rights amendments, it follows a two-part structure: a prohibition on government action paired with a congressional enforcement power. Its passage brought suffrage close to its current form, in which every citizen 18 or older has a constitutionally protected right to vote that cannot be restricted based on race, sex, ability to pay, or age.