Adopted in 1868, the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution has supplied the foundation for all citizenship, voting and civil rights legislation for more than a century. Its constitutional significance is matched only by the 1st Amendment, upholding freedom of religion, speech, assembly and the press. Guaranteeing automatic citizenship to all persons born on US soil, it secures the rights of all residents to “equal protection,” to “life, liberty, property,” and “due process of law.” It further mandates fairness in relation to voting rights and “apportionment” (distribution of Congressional seats). President Donald Trump’s persistent assault on the 14th amendment by way of executive orders has hurt American women and minorities in ways that go way beyond the termination of reproductive rights across multiple “MAGA” states. This talk will argue that, like the proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” when women and minorities are silenced at many levels, it will not be long before democracy in the United States becomes unsustainable.

Prof. Joyce Mushaben was Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she also served as Director of the Institute for Women's & Gender Studies (2002-2005). She is now an Affiliated Faculty member in the BMW Center for German & European Studies at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and works with Gender5 Plus, an EU feminist think-tank in Brussels.

Veranstaltungsort: d.a.i.-Saal, Karlstraße 3

Sprache: Englisch

Eine Kooperation des Deutsch-Amerikanischen Instituts Tübingen (d.a.i.) mit der Volkshochschule Tübingen.

Kursgebühr: 9,00 €, 6,00 € für d.a.i.-Mitglieder. Aufpreis an der Abendkasse. Zu bezahlen bei Anmeldung beim d.a.i.

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