Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 2020
Abstract
Establishing the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause requires a wealth of evidence. But three key data points are crucial to identifying the core of its meaning. First, Supreme Court Justice Washington’s explanation of the meaning of “privileges and immunities” in Corfield v. Coryell; second, the rights protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1866; and third, Michigan Senator Jacob Howard’s speech explaining the content of the Privileges or Immunities Clause when introducing the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Senate in 1866. Any theory of the Privileges or Immunities Clause and its original meaning that cannot comfortably accommodate these three items is highly questionable.
Publication Citation
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 43, Number 1, 1.
Scholarly Commons Citation
Barnett, Randy E., "Three Keys to the Original Meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause" (2020). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 2221.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/2221