This week, The New York Public Library is celebrating Law Day by focusing on arguably the most impactful amendment to the United States Constitution—the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States," and promises every citizen "equal protection of the laws," and that no person shall be denied "life, liberty or property, without due process of the law." The celebration of the 14th Amendment for Law Day perfectly coincides with NYPL's recently acquired access to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) digital archives. Patrons now have online access to over 2 million pages of documents from the ACLU archives covering 1912–1995. This amazing archive can be accessed at any NYPL location, or anywhere else with a library card. Anyone interested in the 14th Amendment will want to explore the files from the Loving v. Virginia case, which covers everything from correspondence regarding payments to detailed discussions of the applicable legal history.

"It was brought to the attention of the Board that a Virginia couple, Richard T. Loving and his half-Negro, half-Indian wife, Mildred, are appealing to the United States Supreme Court a conviction of violation of a Virginia law banning marriages of white and non-whites. Our Board of Directors are unanimous in passing a resolution urging that the national office of the ACLU supply legal support to the Lovings in their appeal to the United States Supreme Court." -North Carolina CLU, March 24, 1966

By further exploring the ACLU database, one can discover the archival documents from the Brown v. Board of Education case, the numerous cases that the ACLU took on in relation to Roe v. Wade, and an extensive collection of manuscripts related to the Scottsboro Boys' case. The amazing historical gems found in this archive paint a picture of America's most important legal moments, and goes far beyond what a casual researcher can find in a typical search engine. The ACLU papers allow NYPL patrons to read correspondence, internal memoranda, minutes, drafts, and much more.

For anyone with a strong interest in the 14th Amendment or U.S. legal history, the ACLU digital archives is only the first stop. There are plenty of other online research options that NYPL has available. Continue researching Loving and Brown with the NAACP Papers, a fully-searchable database of the NAACP archives with nearly 2 million pages of documents. And one can do their own legal research at NYPL's Science, Industry, and Business Library with WestLaw Next. With over 500 online research options available, many accessible from home, we challenge you to go beyond the search engine and dig deeper online with NYPL.