Power to Enforce the Reconstruction Amendments
Learn about the powers Congress received after the Civil War to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments and the central role that authority has played in modern civil rights legislation.
Transcript
Any discussion of Congress’s regulatory power only begins, and does not end, with Article I, Section 8. Article IV of the Constitution also gives Congress enumerated powers, especially with respect to the regulation of interstate relations, the admission of new states, and the regulation of federal territories and other public lands. This lesson introduces three other enumerated powers, Congress’s powers to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, also known as the...