Section 4 Public Debt. The president says he is willing to discuss possible deficit savings, but without the threat of the federal government being unable to pay its bills.The Fifth Amendment, however, applies only against the federal government. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the public debt clause applied prospectively. The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. The public debt clause is found in the fourth section of the Fourteenth Amendment. Legislatures began protecting the lives of human beings in the womb long before American independence. In the following three points Santa Clara University policy differs from that articulated in the AAUP 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic. Pleasanton is a suburban community of approximately 80,000 residents located in Alameda. County, in the eastern portion of the San Francisco Bay Area.