We the People

The 14th Amendment and the History of Reconstruction

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Jeffrey Rosen discusses the 14th Amendment with Sherrilyn Ifill, the head of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard Law School and the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Pamela Brandwein, author of Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction, and Ilan Wurman, author of The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment. They discuss the historical events that gave rise to the 14th Amendment and debate its original meaning. This conversation was originally streamed live as part of the NCC’s America’s Town Hall program series on February 10, 2025, in partnership with the Federal Judicial Center. 


Resources
  • Ilan Wurman, The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment (2020) 
  • Pamela Brandwein, Rethinking the Judicial Settlement of Reconstruction (2011) 
  • Sherrilyn Ifill, “Why are U.S. courts afraid of the 14th Amendment? Because it’s radical,” The Washington Post (Nov. 23, 2023) 
  • Sherrilyn Ifill, “Yes, this is America: Why I’m Creating the 14th Amendment Center for Law and Democracy,” Substack (July 7, 2023) 
  • 14th Amendment 
  • Title VI, Civil Rights Act of 1964 
  • The Civil Rights Act of 1866 
  • The Reconstruction Amendments 
  • Brown v. Board of Education 


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      We the PeopleBy National Constitution Center