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The Constitution of the United States of America
Additional Amendments, Amendment XIV, Section 2
Introduction:
The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution addresses the apportionment of representatives among the states. It states that if a state denies the right to vote to any male citizens who are 21 years of age or older, the number of representatives that state is entitled to in Congress will be reduced in proportion to the number of such citizens denied the right to vote. This section was designed to encourage states to grant voting rights and to penalize those that did not. It reflects the broader goals of the Fourteenth Amendment, which aims to ensure equal protection and rights for all citizens.
Actual Text:
“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. ”
