UC Law Students Go To Columbus For 14th Amendment Ceremony

More than a year after their initial research turned up a historic oversight, a group of students from the University of Cincinnati College of Law headed to the Ohio capital on Sept. 17 to take part in a ceremony to show that Ohio is committed to the principle of equal protection of the law for all citizens.

The part of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees that right, the 14th Amendment, has been the law of the land since shortly after the end of the Civil War. But after Ohio initially voted its approval for the amendment, a group of anti-abolitionist legislators came into power in 1868 and rescinded Ohio's approval.

The UC students discovered these facts while doing research during the summer of 2002. With the leadership of State Sen. Mark Mallory (D - Cincinnati) and State Rep. Gary Cates (R -West Chester), Ohio's legislature re-ratified the 14th Amendment earlier this year, and Ohio Gov. Bob Taft signed off on the legislation.

The Sept. 17 ceremony was a Transmittal Ceremony, where Secretary of State Ken Blackwell officially delivered Ohio's ratification papers to Gov. Taft, who in turn  forwarded them to representatives of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

"One of the things that is most gratifying as a student about this project is that we are taking part in something with a professor's help and actually accomplishing something important in a real-world setting," says Jack Simms, one of the UC law students who was in Columbus for the ceremony. "You don't just enjoy this from an academic sense, but from the perspective that this is the right thing to do overall. Everyone knows how important the 14th Amendment is, so this was an easy project to be committed to."

Since its adoption, the 14th Amendment has been the underpinning for a number of landmark Supreme Court decisions, including Brown vs. Board of Education and decisions that guaranteed the right to marriage and the right to own property.

Ohio was the only state remaining that was in the Union in 1868 and had not yet voted to ratify the 14th Amendment.