wordsworth

The first section of the Fourteenth Amendment reads as follows:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. 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 final two clauses in the second sentence of section one are applicable to our case. The first of these is the "due process" clause.

• nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law

The second of these is the "equal protection" clause.

• nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Both these statements place restraints on State government. These restraints in turn create corresponding individual liberty rights to be free of State action that does not observe the restraints of "due process" and "equal protection".