The Essentials of American Constitutional LawThorpe, Francis Newton
History
The Essentials of American Constitutional Law
Thorpe, Francis Newton
Constitutional law -- United States
160. The Fourteenth Amendment takes no police powers from the States
that were reserved to them when the Constitution was adopted. The
States may still do lawfully as they will with their own, and this
means that they will exercise authority over their own jurisdiction.
That Amendment “in declaring that no State” shall 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, undoubtedly intended not only that there should be no arbitrary
deprivation of life or liberty, or arbitrary spoliation of property,
but that equal protection and security should be given to all under
like circumstances in the enjoyment of their personal and civil rights;
that all persons should be equally entitled to pursue their happiness
and acquire and enjoy property; that they should have like access to
the courts of the country for the protection of their persons and
property, the prevention and redress of wrongs, and the enforcement of
contracts; that no impediment should be interposed to the pursuits of
any one except as applied to the same pursuits by others under like
circumstances; that no greater burdens should be laid upon one than are
laid upon others in the same calling and condition, and that in the
administration of criminal justice no different or higher punishment
should be imposed upon one than such as is prescribed to all for like
offenses. But neither the Amendment, broad and comprehensive as it is,
nor any other Amendment was designed to interfere with the power of
the State, sometimes termed its police power, to prescribe regulations
to promote the health, peace, morals, education, and good order of the
people, and to legislate so as to increase the industries of the State,
develop its resources, and add to its wealth and prosperity. From the
very necessities of society, legislation of a special character, having
these objects in view, must often be had in certain districts, such as
for draining marshes and irrigating arid plains. Special burdens are
often necessary for general benefits,—for supplying water, preventing
fires, lighting districts, cleaning streets, opening parks, and many
other objects. Regulations for these purposes may press with more or
less weight upon one than upon another, but they are designed, not
to impose unequal or unnecessary restrictions upon any one, but to
promote, with as little individual inconvenience as possible, the
general good. Though, in many respects, necessarily special in their
character, they do not furnish just ground of complaint if they operate
alike upon all persons and property under the same circumstances and
conditions. Class legislation, discriminating against some and favoring
others, is prohibited; but legislation which, in carrying out a public
purpose, is limited in its application, if within the sphere of its
operation it affects alike all persons similarly situated is not within
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