Interesting article and comments. What's the issue with the ammendment?
Basically the issue is about citizenship, who bestows it, and as important, the electorate. Before the 14th, the states awarded citizenship and by virtue of that a state citizen was as citizen of the US. A state determined who could vote and what the qualifications were to be a voter. Most states specified land owners. After the 14th citizenship was federal and the electorate was federal. One was now a "resident" in a state.
This changed the states' constitutions drastically and turned the country into a federal republic from a confederate republic. The performance of the 14th amendment on federal and state law is bearing out the most extreme warnings of those that were against it at the time.
