Today's Constitutional Amendment of the Day is Amendment XIV; specifically the equal protection and due process clauses:

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.

The Fourteenth Amendment is long and verbose, but has some very important aspects to it. It was a direct product of the Civil War, and basically gave citizenship rights to any born or naturalized person in the US over 21 years of age.

The equal protection and due process clause, however, is highly important and the most used clause in Amendment 14. Most importantly, it forced individual states to abide by the Bill of Rights, which they were previously free to ignore. While the clause resulted in such good legislation as the Voting Rights Act, it was however, a direct blow to states' rights which were quickly eroding following the war.

Dr. Walter Williams points out that Fourteen has also protected citizens rights to free association. In 1958, two Virginia residents were convicted of miscegenation, for marrying interracially. Their case was heard by the US Supreme Court, which held that such laws were a violation of Fourteen. While today, most would agree that states should not be able to bar interracial marriage, what if they demanded it? What if you were forced to pick your wife based solely on her qualifications for the job, regardless of whether she was fat or thin, ugly or pretty, or black or white? Surely, that too would be a violation of Fourteen. Why then, do feminists insist on trying to break up private, all male golfing clubs such as Augusta National? Just as you should not be barred from allowing women or blacks into your private club, you shouldn't be mandated to do so either. Forced membership also violates Fourteen.

As Dr. Williams so eloquently puts it, the "true test of one's commitment to freedom of association doesn't come when he allows people to associate in ways he approves. The true test of that commitment comes when he allows people to be free to voluntarily associate in ways he deems despicable."