entirely universalize citizenship because it left out the right to vote, hence the need for the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Amendments granting the right to vote to blacks and then to women, respectively.The Supreme Court under Justice Miller rejected that the “amendment’s privileges and immunity clause incorporated the Bill of Rights, holding that the only rights protected were access to Washington D.C., and coastal seaports; the right to protection the high seas; the right to use navigable waters of the United States; the right to assembly and petition; and the privilege of Habeas Corpus.” It wasn’t until the 1960’s that this amendment really came into play. The amendment is used to protect our civil rights and liberties as Americans. The Supreme court recognized in 1925 with Gitlow v. New York that the Bill of Rights was meant for all people, not just rich, white males. The court held that freedom of speech and of the press were basic personal rights that were protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, “No…State shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property with out due process of law; nor deny to any person..equal protection of the law.”In the 1960’s the court then applied that clause to those accused of crimes. They more thoroughly interpreted the Eighth Amendment, regarding cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail. In 1963, the court universalized the right of the accused to have a lawyer, as noted in the Sixth Amendment. In the subsequent year, the right to “plead the Fifth,” or not incriminate one’s self was incorporated and guaranteed as a universal right. In 1966, the court implemented the right for a person to remain silent while being questioned by the police. This Sixth Amendment right now applied to all United States citizens. In 1972, with Roe v. Wade, concerning a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy, the ...
