The debt ceiling, created under the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917, sets the maximum amount of money that the United States can borrow. The 14th Amendment, the Debt Ceiling and a Way Out, N.Y. Times, July 25, 2011, at A10.(quoting Professor Jack Balkin). The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. We must look to see if the interest is within the Fourteenth Amendment's protection of liberty and property. The fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the. Constitutional Amendments. The Illinois Constitution was adopted in a convention on Sept. The 14th amendment requires the government to pay its debts, all other expenditures become secondary. Fourteenth Amendment, the first place in the U.S. Constitution in which the fundamental.