Section 5 Of 14th Amendment

Congress is limited under section 5 of the 14th amendment to enacting laws that prevent or remedy violations of rights already established by the supreme court.

Section 5 of 14th amendment. Section 5 the congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. We the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union establish justice insure domestic tranquility provide for the common defence promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this constitution. The validity of the public debt of the united states authorized by law including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned.

The congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Section 5 also known as the enforcement clause of the fourteenth amendment enables congress to pass laws enforcing the amendment s other provisions. United states constitution preamble.

And the best way to operationalize this authority and its relationship to judicial review is to borrow the deference framework familiar from chevron v. Amdt14 s5 1 enforcing the fourteenth amendment. The validity of the public debt of the united states authorized by law including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion shall not be questioned.

Congress s authority under 5 of the fourteenth amendment to abrogate states eleventh amendment immunity is strongest when a state s conduct at issue in a case is alleged to have actually violated a constitutional right. Because the court is the authoritative interpreter of the constitution not congress. In united states v.

My thesis is that section five gives congress affirmative power to interpret the substance of constitutional rights when it goes about enforcing the fourteenth amendment. 217 218 in the civil rights cases 1883 30 the supreme court interpreted section 5 narrowly stating that the legislation which congress is authorized to adopt in this behalf is not general legislation upon the rights of the citizen but corrective legislation. Section 5 the congress shall have the power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article.