Power, Legitimacy, and the 14th Amendment by Joseph E. Fallon The justification for the vast, intrusive, and coercive powers employed by the government of the United States against its citizens from affirmative action to hate-crimes legislation, from multilingualism to multiculturalism, from Waco to Ruby Ridge is the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution adopted in 1868, or, more specifically, the authority conferred upon Washington, explicitly or implicitly, by the privileges and immunities and equal protection clauses of that amendment. The government of the United States, as established by the U.S. Constitution in 1789, was effectively abolished by the 14th Amendment....