Editing Equal Protection Clause (section)

==Early history following ratification==
Bingham said in a speech on March 31, 1871 that the clause meant no State could deny anyone "the equal protection of the Constitution of the United States ... [or] any of the rights which it guarantees to all men", nor deny to anyone "any right secured to him either by the laws and treaties of the United States or of such State."<ref>Flack, Horace. ''The Adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment'', p. 232 (Johns Hopkins Press, 1908). For Bingham's full speech, see ''Appendix to the Congressional Globe, 42d Congress, 1st Sess.'', p. 83 (March 31, 1871).</ref> At that time, the meaning of equality varied from one state to another.<ref>requires citation</ref>

[[File:Reconstruction_14th_amendment_is_not_recognized.jpg|thumb|This drawing by E. W. Kemble shows a sleeping Congress with a broken Fourteenth Amendment. It makes the case that Congress ignored its constitutional obligations to Black Americans.]]

Four of the original thirteen states never passed any laws barring [[Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States|interracial marriage]], and the other states were divided on the issue in the Reconstruction era.<ref>Wallenstein, Peter. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HFei2wFmNfsC&pg=PA253 Tell the Court I Love My Wife: Race, Marriage, and Law--An American History]'', p. 253 (Palgrave Macmillan, Jan 17, 2004). The four of the original thirteen states are New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Id.</ref> In 1872, the [[Alabama Supreme Court]] ruled that the state's ban on mixed-race marriage violated the "cardinal principle" of the 1866 Civil Rights Act and of the Equal Protection Clause.<ref>Pascoe, Peggy. ''What Comes Naturally: Miscegenation Law and the Making of Race in America'', p. 58 (Oxford U. Press 2009).</ref> Almost a hundred years would pass before the U.S. Supreme Court followed that Alabama case (''Burns v. State'') in the case of ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]''. In ''Burns'', the Alabama Supreme Court said:<ref>Calabresi, Steven and Matthews, Andrea. "Originalism and Loving v. Virginia", ''Brigham Young University Law Review'' (2012).</ref>

<blockquote>Marriage is a civil contract, and in that character alone is dealt with by the municipal law. The same right to make a contract as is enjoyed by white citizens, means the right to make any contract which a white citizen may make. The law intended to destroy the distinctions of race and color in respect to the rights secured by it.</blockquote>

As for public schooling, no states during this era of [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction]] actually required separate schools for blacks.<ref name=Foner>[[Eric Foner|Foner, Eric]]. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FhvA0S_op38C&pg=PA321 Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877]'', pp. 321–322 (HarperCollins 2002).</ref> However, some states (e.g. New York) gave local districts discretion to set up schools that were deemed [[separate but equal]].<ref name=Bickel>[[Alexander Bickel|Bickel, Alexander]]. "[http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4958&context=fss_papers The Original Understanding and the Segregation Decision]", ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'', Vol. 69, pp. 35–37 (1955).</ref> In contrast, Iowa and Massachusetts flatly prohibited segregated schools ever since the 1850s.<ref>Finkelman, Paul. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=dNtyyzGUNzYC&pg=PA19 Rehearsal for Reconstruction: Antebellum Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment]", in ''The Facts of Reconstruction: Essays in Honor of John Hope Franklin'', p. 19 (Eric Anderson and Alfred A. Moss, eds., LSU Press, 1991).</ref>

Likewise, some states were more favorable to women's legal status than others; New York, for example, had been giving women full property, parental, and widow's rights since 1860, but not the right to vote.<ref>Woloch, Nancy. ''Women and the American Experience'', p. 185 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984).</ref> No state or territory allowed [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]] when the Equal Protection Clause took effect in 1868.<ref>Wayne, Stephen. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=oVv-AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 Is This Any Way to Run a Democratic Election?]'', p. 27 (CQ PRESS 2013).</ref> In contrast, at that time African American men had full voting rights in five states.<ref>McInerney, Daniel. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ReTe5oqGna4C&pg=PA212 A Traveller's History of the USA]'', p. 212 (Interlink Books, 2001).</ref>