Bill Text: MI SR0033 | 2021-2022 | 101st Legislature | Enrolled
Bill Title: A resolution to affirm our support for the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-1)
Status: (Passed) 2021-03-24 - Adopted [SR0033 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2021-SR0033-Enrolled.html
senate Resolution No.33
Senators Hollier, Ananich, Chang, Geiss, Bullock, Wojno, Polehanki, Santana, Moss, Bayer, Brinks, Barrett and Irwin offered the following resolution:
A resolution to affirm our support for the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Whereas, The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was a critical step in advancing our nation towards our founding principle that "all men are created equal." Ratified in the wake of the Civil War, the amendment extended fundamental legal and civil protections to former slaves; and
Whereas, The Fourteenth Amendment grants federal and state citizenship to all people born and naturalized in the United States and prohibits states from enforcing any law that infringes on the privileges or immunities of citizenship. This ensured that states could not deny the citizenship to newly freed slaves and directly rebuked the U.S. Supreme Court's infamous ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), in which the court ruled that African Americans could not be citizens; and
Whereas, The Fourteenth Amendment also ensures due process and equal protection under the law for all people. These clauses have been, and continue to be, crucial to important victories for progress and civil rights. The equal protection clause was critical to the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) and Loving v. Virginia (1967), which prohibited segregation in public schools and outlawed bans on interracial marriage; and
Whereas, Protecting the rights afforded by the Fourteenth Amendment has often required the will of public leaders. Less than three years after the amendment was ratified, three federal laws were enacted to ensure its enforcement in the face of the growing Ku Klux Klan movement and state actions to subjugate former slaves. As our nation faces similar challenges, today's public leaders have a duty to defend the right ensured by the Fourteenth Amendment; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate, That we affirm our support for the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
