14th Amendment=Supreme Court's "Get out of jail free" card?

Recently I have been fascinated with researching various Supreme Court cases, their effects, etc. and in a lot of the opinions and rulings I've been finding a lot of verdicts supported by the 14th Amendment and its clauses, such as the due process clause, equal protection and so on. I'm not exactly an expert on government but I feel a lot of power and leeway is being milked out of the amendment that the drafters may not have intended.

To give a specific example, Roe vs. Wade; in the majority opinion there was made references to the 14th to give support to the decision, and I like others think that it was misinterpretation and that the rights addressed came out of thin air. This is just one example I can think of.

So do you think the 14th has been overinterpreted so to speak; that the court has stretched it to cover and support too much? In effect has it become a get out of jail free card?

 

I'm not sure what you mean "get out of jail free card." All the 14th Amendment basically says is that the government has to give a reason why when it takes things away from people. (of course, the actual text is much more specific.)

You mentioned Roe v Wade, but that decision was well within the established norm with regard to the 14th Amendment. Remember, the original case revolved around the fact that at the time, Texas simply said "no abortions in Texas." (it actually might have been Oklahoma, but anyway, it was one of those hot states down there...) The SC cited the 14th Amendment to say that the government has to give a reason why abortions are regulated. RvW isn't a blanket decision. Very few cases are. In simple terms, think of Roe v Wade as establishing probable cause for the abortion issue. But even under RvW, states can limit abortion, which is why the topic continues today.

The 14th Amendment itself isn't a blanket authority either.

 

I don't know. You'd think the first decision they'd overturn on 14th Amendment grounds would be Buck v. Bell (regarding coercive sterilization), but it still stands.