Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
In my remarks today, I will defend the proposition that the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment protects "economic liberty." To clarify the issue, let me being by defining economic liberty. I define economic liberty as the right to acquire, use and possess private property and the right to enter into private contracts of one's choosing. If these rights are protected by the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, then we can conclude that the Amendment does protect economic liberty.
In my view, the evidence that the original meaning Fourteenth Amendment protects rights of private property and contract is overwhelming. But to say that the Amendment protects the rights of property and contract is not to say exactly how these rights are to be protected. I will return to that important topic after I discuss what the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment protects.
Publication Citation
Mississippi Law Journal, Vol. 94, Issue 6, Pp. 1225-1234, Symposium: The Fourteenth Amendment: Its Past and Future: Selected Symposium Remarks.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Barnett, Randy E., "Does the Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment Protect Economic Liberty?" (2025). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 2682.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2682
Included in
Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Fourteenth Amendment Commons