The Equal Protection Clause is contained in which constitutional amendment?

• A. First Amendment
• B. Tenth Amendment
• C. Fourteenth Amendment
• D. Twenty-sixth Amendment

Answer: (C)

The Equal Protection Clause is a fundamental guardrail that requires states to treat people who are in similar situations alike. It lives in the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War to extend constitutional protections to actions by state governments. This clause prohibits denying anyone within a state's jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, which has been crucial in challenging laws that discriminated against groups and in broad civil rights advancements.

Think of the other amendments as different protections: the First Amendment protects freedoms like speech and religion; the Tenth Amendment reserves powers to the states or to the people; the Twenty-sixth Amendment sets the voting age at 18. None of these contain the Equal Protection Clause.