en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
5 corrections found
The second section superseded the Three-fifths Compromise, apportioning the House of Representatives and Electoral College using each state's adult male population.
Section 2 does not apportion representation by adult male population. It apportions representation by the whole number of persons in each state; adult male citizens appear only in the penalty formula for disenfranchisement.
Full reasoning
This sentence conflates two different parts of Section 2.
Section 2 first sets the apportionment rule for House seats: representatives are apportioned by "the whole number of persons in each State" (with the obsolete exception for "Indians not taxed"). It then adds a separate penalty formula reducing a state's representation if it denies the vote to certain male citizens aged 21 or older.
So the amendment did not switch apportionment to each state's adult male population. Adult male citizens were relevant only to the reduction formula for voter disenfranchisement, not to the base population used for apportionment or electoral votes.
1 source
- Apportionment Clause | U.S. Constitution Annotated | LII / Legal Information Institute
Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2: 'Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State...' Only afterward does the section refer to 'male inhabitants' and 'male citizens twenty-one years of age' in the reduction formula.
In Trump v. Anderson (2024), the Supreme Court held that Section 5 delegates enforcement of the Insurrection Clause to Congress for federal and state officers, while allowing states to also impose disqualification on state candidates.
Trump v. Anderson did not assign enforcement for state offices to Congress. The Court said states may disqualify people from state office, but states have no power to enforce Section 3 against federal offices.
Full reasoning
This overstates the Court's holding.
In Trump v. Anderson, the Court drew a federal/state distinction:
- States may enforce Section 3 for state office.
- States may not enforce Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates.
- For federal offices, the Court said the Amendment's text "speak[s] only to enforcement by Congress" through Section 5.
The opinion expressly states: "States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency."
So it is incorrect to say the Court delegated enforcement to Congress "for federal and state officers." The Court left room for state enforcement as to state offices.
1 source
- Trump v. Anderson, 601 U.S. ___ (2024)
The Court wrote: 'States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office. But States have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the Presidency.' It also said the Amendment's terms 'speak only to enforcement by Congress' for federal officeholders and candidates.
Consistent with the views of the clause's author, Senator Jacob M. Howard, the Supreme Court held that because Indian reservations are not under the federal government's jurisdiction, Native Americans born on such land are not entitled to birthright citizenship.
Elk v. Wilkins did not say reservations were outside federal jurisdiction. The Court said tribal members were born within U.S. territory but were not fully subject to U.S. political jurisdiction because they owed immediate allegiance to their tribes.
Full reasoning
This misstates the reasoning of Elk v. Wilkins.
The Court did not hold that Indian reservations were outside federal jurisdiction. In fact, the Court described tribal members as living within the territorial limits of the United States and explained that the relevant issue was political allegiance and jurisdiction, not geographic location outside federal control.
The opinion says members of tribes "owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes" and that the Citizenship Clause requires being "completely subject to [the United States'] political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance." It then explains that tribal members born in the United States were not citizens at birth for that reason.
So the article reverses the case's logic: the Court's point was not that reservations were beyond federal jurisdiction, but that tribal members were not, at birth, fully within U.S. political jurisdiction in the constitutional sense the Court adopted.
1 source
- ELK v. WILKINS. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
The Court said tribal members 'owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes' and that the Citizenship Clause requires being 'completely subject to [the United States'] political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance.' It also described Indians as born 'within the territorial limits of the United States.'
The Supreme Court ruled in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) that diverse student bodies were a compelling interest for universities while deeming racial quotas in public university admissions unconstitutional.
Bakke did not produce a majority holding that diversity is a compelling interest. That was Justice Powell's solo rationale; the Court did not formally endorse it until Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003.
Full reasoning
This sentence states Justice Powell's individual view as though it were the holding of the entire Court in Bakke.
As the Supreme Court later explained in Grutter v. Bollinger, Bakke produced six separate opinions, none of which commanded a majority. Grutter specifically notes that "[i]n a part of his opinion that was joined by no other Justice, Justice Powell expressed his view" that attaining a diverse student body was the only interest that survived scrutiny.
Grutter then says the Court itself was endorsing Justice Powell's view in 2003. That means the diversity-as-compelling-interest rationale was not a majority holding of the Court in Bakke itself.
It is accurate that Bakke struck down the quota system and that Powell endorsed diversity as a compelling interest, but it is inaccurate to say "The Supreme Court ruled" that point in Bakke as a majority holding.
1 source
- GRUTTER v. BOLLINGER | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
Grutter states that Bakke 'produced six separate opinions, none of which commanded a majority' and that '[i]n a part of his opinion that was joined by no other Justice, Justice Powell expressed his view that attaining a diverse student body was the only interest asserted by the university that survived scrutiny.' Grutter then says the Court 'endorses Justice Powell's view' in 2003.
In the Gold Clause Cases, the Supreme Court held that Congress's authority over monetary policy allowed it to pass the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, despite the law's practical effect of invalidating gold clauses, which allowed creditors to demand payment in gold.
The Gold Clause Cases were not about the Emergency Banking Act itself invalidating gold clauses. They centered on the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933, which expressly nullified gold-clause provisions.
Full reasoning
This sentence attributes the core holding of the Gold Clause Cases to the Emergency Banking Act of 1933, but the cases themselves identify a different measure as the relevant one: the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933.
In Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., the Court said the cases presented "the question of the validity of the Joint Resolution of the Congress, of June 5, 1933, with respect to the 'gold clauses' of private contracts". In Perry v. United States, the Court likewise described the plaintiff's claim as challenging refusals "based on the Joint Resolution of the Congress of June 5, 1933" and then stated that the question presented was whether that Joint Resolution was valid as applied to U.S. obligations.
The Emergency Banking Act appears in the background as one of several related currency measures, but the judicial issue about invalidating gold clauses was tied to the June 5, 1933 Joint Resolution, not to the Emergency Banking Act itself.
2 sources
- NORMAN v. BALTIMORE & O.R. CO. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
The Court said: 'These cases present the question of the validity of the Joint Resolution of the Congress, of June 5, 1933, with respect to the "gold clauses" of private contracts for the payment of money.'
- PERRY v. UNITED STATES. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
Perry says the government's refusal was 'based on the Joint Resolution of the Congress of June 5, 1933' and presents 'the question ... whether the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933 ... is a valid enactment so far as it applies to the obligations of the United States.'