All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
^Failinger, Marie. Equal protection of the laws. Schultz, David Andrew (编). The Encyclopedia of American Law. Infobase: 152–53. 2009. ISBN 9781438109916. （原始内容存档于July 24, 2020）. The equal protection clause guarantees the right of "similarly situated" people to be treated the same way by the law.
^Fair Treatment by the Government: Equal Protection. GeorgiaLegalAid.org. Carl Vinson Institute of Government at University of Georgia. July 30, 2004 [July 24, 2020]. （原始内容存档于March 20, 2020）. The basic intent of equal protection is to make sure that people are treated as equally as possible under our legal system. For example, it is to see that everyone who gets a speeding ticket will face the samEpocedures [sic!]. A further intent is to ensure that all Americans are provided with equal opportunities in education, employment, and other areas. [...] The U.S. Constitution makes a similar provision in the Fourteenth Amendment. It says that no state shall make or enforce any law that will "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law." These provisions require the government to treat persons equally and impartially.
^Equal Protection. Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. [July 24, 2020]. （原始内容存档于June 22, 2020）. Equal Protection refers to the idea that a governmental body may not deny people equal protection of its governing laws. The governing body state must treat an individual in the same manner as others in similar conditions and circumstances.
