Don't forget the 14th, Section 1, final sentence: "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."
As I understand it, this section has been judicially interpreted to transform the Constitution from a document carefully defining the boundaries of the fedgov into a behemoth whose tentacles reach into every nook and cranny of state and local government. It's where the fedgov changed from servant of the States into their master.
I'm in favor of all amendments after the 12th needing to go. Since the Constitution itself denies no one the right to vote, the 15th & 19th are politically motivated and therefore unnecessary. Likewise the 13th was a reiteration of the Emancipation Proclamation and also, IMHO, unnecessary. I agree with most here that the wording of the 14th is open to mischevious interpretation.
Of all the amendments that make my blood boil it is the 16th:
Article I, Section 9: "...No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken..."
Amendment XVI: "The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration."
This blatant turning of the Founders words directly against them, my fellow FReepers, is IMHO the worst crime in this nation's history. The kind of taxation authorized by the 16th is precisely that against which the Founders revolted .