EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW Especially in school, as well as in our daily lives, we learn in America to live by the idea of ​​freedom and equality for all. We do not allow race, class, or creed to determine a person's stature in the community. It may seem like this is the standard of society, but these ideas of equality have been fought for since the beginning of written history, and even in America today prejudice still exists. To address these and similar problems, this nation's founding fathers created a Constitution that included laws addressing individual liberties. As grand as the Founding Fathers imagined, the United States Constitution did not constitute a perfect union and justice for all. America should amend, or supplement, the Constitution to better serve its constituents. The most powerful constitutional act toward equality would come with the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment permanently changed constitutional law by giving the jurisdiction of the federal government the power to include local and state governments that would be held to new standards of civil rights and privileges. In 1791, the states ratified ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These became known as the Bill of Rights, a cornerstone in guaranteeing individual freedom. The United States Senate abandoned one of the original proposals, stating: “No state shall violate the equal rights of conscience, or the freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in crimes...