Re: Reproductive Rights and State Benefits (fwd)

On Sun, 24 Aug 1997, Jim Choate wrote:

The original Constitution already had a clause applying the Constitution and all laws derived from it to the states and preventing judges or other agencies from bypassing them. So, given that such extensions were already in place just what does the 14th do?

Well, quite a bit actually, as interpreted by the SCt. It makes many, perhaps all, of the Bill of Rights prohibitions on Congress applicable to state gov'ts as well. Art. VI, to which I think you refer, does not do so of its own accord. MacN