Adopted in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution has supplied the foundation for all citizenship, voting and civil rights legislation for more than a century. Its constitutional significance is matched only by the 1st Amendment, upholding freedom of religion, speech, assembly and the
press. Guaranteeing automatic citizenship to all persons born on US soil, it secures the rights of all residents to “equal protection,” to “life, liberty,
property,” and “due process of law.” It further mandates fairness in relation to voting rights and “apportionment” (distribution of Congressional seats). This talk examines the implications of recent executive orders affecting 14th Amendment protections, with particular attention to their impact on women and minority communities beyond the well-documented restrictions on reproductive rights in several states. Drawing on the metaphor of the ‚canary in the coal mine,‘ the presentation will explore the argument that the erosion of rights for
marginalized groups may serve as an early indicator of broader challenges to democratic governance in the United States.
Prof. Joyce Mushaben was Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she also
served as Director of the Institute for Women’s & Gender Studies (2002-2005). She is now an Affiliated Faculty member in the BMW Center for German & European Studies at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and works with Gender5 Plus, an EU feminist think-tank in Brussels.
