The constitutional principle found in the Fourteenth Amendment requiring that government treat similarly situated people alike under the law. It prohibits states from denying any person 'the equal protection of the laws' and has become the foundation for civil rights litigation.
From Latin 'aequalis' (uniform) and 'protectio' (a covering or defense). Added to the Constitution in 1868 during Reconstruction, initially intended to protect freed slaves from discriminatory state laws.
This clause lay dormant for nearly a century until Brown v. Board of Education awakened its power in 1954—ironically, the same amendment that was supposed to guarantee equality was used to justify 'separate but equal' segregation for decades before the Court finally got it right!
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