Section 1. 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.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among
the several
States according to their respective numbers,
counting the whole number
of persons in each State,
excluding Indians not taxed. But when the
right to vote
at any election for the choice of electors for
President
and Vice President of the United States,
Representatives
in Congress, the Executive and Judicial
officers of a State, or the
members of the Legislature
thereof, is denied to any of the male
inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens
of the
United States, or in any way abridged, except
for
participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis
of
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion
which
the number of such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male
citizens twenty-one years of age
in such State.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or
Representative in
Congress, or elector of President and
Vice President, or hold any
office, civil or military, under
the United States, or under any State,
who, having
previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or
as
an officer of the United States, or as a member of
any State
legislature, or as an executive or judicial
officer of any State, to
support the Constitution of the
United States, shall have engaged in
insurrection or
rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to
the
enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of
two-thirds of
each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. 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. But neither the United States nor any State
shall
assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in
aid of insurrection or
rebellion against the United States,
or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave;
but all such debts, obligations and claims
shall be held
illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce,
by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.