True equality has never existed in the United States. Since the Declaration of Independence was created until the present time, the U.S. legal system has failed at every attempt of equality. The old saying "all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others" has been around throughout the history of the U.S. Equality has always existed in our legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality presently in the system is not as obvious as what it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality.
Inequality has been in the United States legal system since the very beginning. The Declaration of Independence declared, " all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights-(Jefferson). The reality of the Declaration of Independence was that all free, white, landowning men are created equal. Blacks could still feel the affects of inequality ninety years after the Declaration was created because slavery still existed in the U.S. Women were also left out of " all men are created equal ." The implied meaning of the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence is what the U.S. legal system has strived for and failed to grasp fully.
After independence was established in the United States, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were developed. The goal of the Bill of Rights was to establish basic rights for every citizen of the United States, but failed to do so. The rights of white, male citizens were the only rights that were ensured by the Bill of Rights. The rights of blacks and the underprivileged were not even considered. The Fifth Amendment states, "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation" ("Constitution", Amendment V).
