This Day in History: 1868-07-28

Secretary of State William Seward issued a proclamation certifying the ratification of the 14th Amendment by the states.  Probably in response to the strength of the Woman Suffrage movement, the 14th amendment is the first time the word “male” appears in the U.S. Constitution

From Cornell Law School: “The Fourteenth Amendment addresses many aspects of citizenship and the rights of citizens.  The most commonly used — and frequently litigated — phrase in the amendment is  “equal protection of the laws”, which figures prominently in a wide variety of landmark cases, including Brown v. Board of Education (racial discrimination), Roe v. Wade (reproductive rights),  Bush v. Gore (election recounts), Reed v. Reed (gender discrimination),  and University of California v. Bakke (racial quotas in education). “