True equality has never existed in the United States. From the Declaration of Independence to modern times, the U.S. legal system has failed in every attempt to achieve equality. The ideology that “all [men] are equal but some [men] are more equal than others” has been present throughout the history of the United States (Orwell). Inequality has always existed in the United States legal system and continues to exist today; however, the inequality currently present in the system is not as evident as it once was, but the system has come to depend on inequality. Since the inception of the legal system in the United States, there has been inequality. The Declaration of Independence declared that “…all men are created equal, being endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” (Jefferson). The reality of the Declaration of Independence was that all freemen, white men, and landowners are created equal. Slavery continued in the United States for nearly ninety years after the Declaration, and black Americans still feel the pain of inequality. Women have also been excluded from the principle “…all men are created equal…”. The implied meaning of the first lines of the Declaration of Independence is what the U.S. legal system has struggled for and failed to fully grasp. After the establishment of independence in the United States, the development of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights followed. The Bill of Rights was supposed to establish the fundamental rights of every citizen of the United States, but it failed to do so. The rights of white male citizens were the only rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The rights of blacks and the less privileged were not even taken into consideration. The Fifth Amendment states: “No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime, unless presented to or indicted by a grand jury…, nor shall he be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without a due process of law." ; nor shall private property be confiscated for public use, without just compensation" ("Constitution", Amendment V). These rights were often denied to those who were second-class citizens or to those who were not even considered persons, such as slaves The rights guaranteed by the first ten amendments have been denied to a portion of the population at any time in American history. The denial of the fundamental rights established by the Bill of Rights is not limited to any one amendment..... half of the document ......ploughing of Independence". Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. British CD-ROM. 1998. “Jim Crow Laws.” Encyclopedia Britannica 1997-98. Britannica, volume 45, book 3. 12 December 1999.href="http://www.wcl.american.edu/pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS.HTM">http://www.wcl.american.edu/ pub/journals/lawrev/KAIRYS. HTMorwell, George. Animal Farm in Columbia CD-ROM 1997. "Racial Segregation" Encyclopedia Britannica CD-ROM.1998. United States Supreme Court. 163 US 537 (1896)." Selected Historic Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Legal Information Institute, 1999. December 12, 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm ">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases/historic.htm Supreme Court of the United States." Brown v. Board of Education, 349 US 294 (1955)." Selected Historic Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. Legal Information Institute, 1999. December 12, 1999. href="http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases /historic.htm">http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/cases /historic.htm