Relying on both celebrated and little-known cases, this acclaimed chronicle of the Fourteenth Amendment—a constitutional guarantee of equality and freedom and the cornerstone of individual liberty as we know it—traces the amendment"s fascinating origins in the aftermath of the Civil War; its near repudiation; violent reactions against it; its revival in the twentieth century; and, in a substantial new afterword, its recent challenges and setbacks. Meyer looks at current attacks against the amendment, which threaten affirmative action, desegregation, voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and protection from oppressive measures of the State.