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The Privileges and Immunities Clause (
U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...
,
Article IV Article Four may refer to the 4th article of any regulatory document, such as: * Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights * Article Four (political party), political party in Sicily, Italy * Article Four of the United States Constitu ...
, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents a
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner. Additionally, a right of interstate travel is associated with the clause.


Text


Prior to ratification of Constitution

The clause is similar to a provision in the
Articles of Confederation The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 Colonies of the United States of America that served as its first frame of government. It was approved after much debate (between July 1776 and November 1777) by ...
: "The free inhabitants of each of these States,
pauper Pauperism (Lat. ''pauper'', poor) is poverty or generally the state of being poor, or particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. receiving relief administered under the English Poor Laws. From this, pauperism can also be more generally ...
s,
vagabonds Vagrancy is the condition of homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants (also known as bums, vagabonds, rogues, tramps or drifters) usually live in poverty and support themselves by begging, scavenging, petty theft, tempora ...
and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States."
James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for hi ...
discussed that provision of the Articles of Confederation in
Federalist No. 42 Federalist No. 42 is an essay by James Madison, and the forty-second of ''The Federalist Papers''. It was published on January 22, 1788 under the pseudonym The Federalist Papers#Origins, Publius, the name under which all ''The Federalist'' paper ...
. Madison wrote, "Those who come under the denomination of free inhabitants of a State, although not citizens of such State, are entitled, in every other State, to all the privileges of free citizens of the latter; that is, to greater privileges than they may be entitled to in their own State." Madison apparently did not believe that this clause in the Articles of Confederation dictated how a state must treat its own citizens.
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charlest ...
wrote in
Federalist No. 80 Federalist No. 80 is an essay by Alexander Hamilton, the eightieth of ''The Federalist Papers''. It was published on June 21, 1788 under the pseudonym Federalist Papers#Origins, Publius, the name under which all ''The Federalist'' papers were pu ...
that the corresponding Privileges and Immunities Clause in the proposed federal Constitution was "the basis of the union."


Between ratification and Civil War

In the federal circuit court case of ''
Corfield v. Coryell ''Corfield v. Coryell'' (6 Fed. Cas. 546, no. 3,230 C.C.E.D.Pa. 1823) was a landmark decision decided by Justice Bushrod Washington, sitting as a judge for the U.S. Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. In it, he upheld a New ...
'', Justice
Bushrod Washington Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Ch ...
wrote in 1823 that the protections provided by the clause are confined to privileges and immunities which are, "in their nature, fundamental; which belong, of right, to the citizens of all free governments; and which have, at all times, been enjoyed by the citizens of the several states which compose this Union, from the time of their becoming free, independent, and sovereign." In his explanation of the scope of the rights protected by the clause, Justice Washington included the right to travel through and reside in states, the right to claim benefit of the writ of
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
, the right of access to the courts, the right to purchase and hold
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
, and an exemption from higher taxes than state residents pay. The ''Corfield'' case involved the rights of an out-of-state citizen, rather than the rights of an in-state citizen, and Justice Washington's opinion did not suggest that this provision of the Constitution addresses how a legislature must treat its own citizens. On the contrary, Washington's handwritten notes indicate his belief that this provision of the Constitution did not address how a legislature must treat its own citizens. Another pertinent federal circuit court case was decided by Justice Henry Baldwin, who succeeded Justice Washington. In the case of '' Magill v. Brown'', Justice Baldwin addressed the Privileges and Immunities Clause: "We must take it therefore as a grant by the people of the state in convention, to the citizens of all the other states of the Union, of the privileges and immunities of the citizens of this state." These federal circuit court statements by Justices Washington and Baldwin were not inconsistent with each other. They both became the settled doctrine of the
U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
after the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
. In 1833, Justice
Joseph Story Joseph Story (September 18, 1779 – September 10, 1845) was an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving from 1812 to 1845. He is most remembered for his opinions in ''Martin v. Hunter's Lessee'' and ''United States ...
also addressed the clause:
It is obvious, that, if the citizens of each state were to be deemed aliens to each other, they could not take, or hold real estate, or other privileges, except as other aliens. The intention of this clause was to confer on them, if one may so say, a general citizenship; and to communicate all the privileges and immunities, which the citizens of the same state would be entitled to under the like circumstances.
Thus, Story thought that the clause was meant "only to provide temporary visitors with equality in certain rights with the citizens of the states they were visiting." The clause was also mentioned by the Supreme Court in the infamous ''
Dred Scott v. Sandford ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'', 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that held the U.S. Constitution did not extend American citizenship to people of black African descent, enslaved or free; th ...
'' decision in 1857. Chief Justice Taney, speaking for the majority, said that the clause gives state citizens, when in other states, the right to travel, the right to sojourn, the
right to free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
, the
right to assemble Freedom of peaceful assembly, sometimes used interchangeably with the freedom of association, is the individual right or ability of people to come together and collectively express, promote, pursue, and defend their collective or shared ide ...
, and the right to keep and bear arms." In his dissent, Justice Curtis wrote that the clause does not confer any rights other than rights that a visited state chooses to guarantee to its own citizens.


After the Civil War

In 1866, during the congressional debates about the draft
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Often considered as one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses citizenship rights and ...
, Senator Jacob Howard noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had never squarely addressed the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause:
It would be a curious question to solve what are the privileges and immunities of citizens of each of the States in the several States....I am not aware that the Supreme Court have ever undertaken to define either the nature or extent of the privileges and immunities thus guarantied.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified two years later, in 1868, and still the Supreme Court had not spoken. The following year, on November 1 of 1869, the Court finally addressed this issue. In the case of ''
Paul v. Virginia ''Paul v. Virginia'', 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 168 (1869), is a United States corporate law, U.S. corporate law decision by the United States Supreme Court. It held that a corporation is not a citizen within the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities C ...
'', , the Court said the following:
It was undoubtedly the object of the clause in question to place the citizens of each State upon the same footing with citizens of other States, so far as the advantages resulting from citizenship in those States are concerned. It relieves them from the disabilities of alienage in other States; it inhibits discriminating legislation against them by other States; it gives them the right of free ingress into other States, and egress from them; it insures to them in other States the same freedom possessed by the citizens of those States in the acquisition and enjoyment of property and in the pursuit of happiness; and it secures to them in other States the equal protection of their laws.
The Court went on to explain that the laws of one state would not become effective in another: "It was not intended by the provision to give to the laws of one State any operation in other States. They can have no such operation, except by the permission, express or implied, of those States." These sections of ''Paul v. Virginia'' are still good law, and were relied upon, for example, in ''
Saenz v. Roe ''Sáenz v. Roe'', 526 U.S. 489 (1999), was a landmark case in which the Supreme Court of the United States discussed whether there is a constitutional right to travel from one state to another. The case was a reaffirmation of the principle that c ...
'', . Other portions of ''Paul v. Virginia'' were reversed in ''
U.S. v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n ''United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association'', 322 U.S. 533 (1944), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the Sherman Act, the federal antitrust statute, applied to insurance. To reach this decision, the ...
'', . The Court has never deviated from the principle stated in ''Paul'' that the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article IV of the Constitution has no bearing on how a state treats its own citizens. In-state residents "have no claim under the Privileges and Immunities Clause." '' United Building & Construction Trades Council v. Mayor and Council of Camden'', . The Privileges and Immunities Clause prevents discrimination against people from out of state, but only with regard to basic rights. The Court uses a two-part test to determine if the Privileges and Immunities Clause has been violated. First, it looks to see if a law discriminates against people from out of state regarding fundamental rights (e.g. protection by the government of the enjoyment of life, and liberty, the right to acquire and possess property of every kind, and to pursue and obtain happiness and safety). These rights often focus on the economic right to pursue a livelihood. The second part of the test focuses on whether the state is justified in the discrimination. It examines if there is a substantial reason for the difference in treatment, and if the discriminatory law has a substantial relationship to that reason. For example, the Court has asked: "Does the distinction made by Montana between residents and nonresidents in establishing access to elk hunting threaten a basic right in a way that offends the Privileges and Immunities Clause?" See ''
Baldwin v. Fish and Game Commission of Montana ''Baldwin v. Fish & Game Commission of Montana'', 436 U.S. 371 (1978), was a United States Supreme Court case that affirmed the right of the state of Montana to charge higher fees for out-of-state elk hunters. Background In the state of Montana, ...
'' . The court held it did not, because hunting is a recreational sport, which is outside the fundamental rights protected by the Constitution. If the court had found that recreation and sports were fundamental rights, it would have still had to examine whether the state had a compelling interest (protecting elk herds from being over-hunted), and whether the law was designed to address that problem. The Court's decision in the ''
Slaughterhouse Cases The ''Slaughter-House Cases'', 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36 (1873), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision consolidating several cases that held that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution only pro ...
'' (1873) is consistent with the idea that the Privileges and Immunities Clause was intended only to guarantee that a citizen of one state could enjoy equality in another state with regard to fundamental rights. Referring to the words of Justice Washington in '' Corfield'', the ''Slaughterhouse'' Court stated:
ivileges and immunities....are, in the language of Judge Washington, those rights which are fundamental. Throughout his opinion, they are spoken of as rights belonging to the individual as a citizen of a State....The constitutional provision there alluded to did not create those rights....It threw around them in that clause no security for the citizen of the State in which they were claimed or exercised. Nor did it profess to control the power of the State governments over the rights of its own citizens. Its ''sole purpose'' was to declare to the several States, that whatever those rights, as you grant or establish them to your own citizens, or as you limit or qualify, or impose restrictions on their exercise, the same, neither more nor less, shall be the measure of the rights of citizens of other States within your jurisdiction. (emphasis added)
The Supreme Court has never interpreted the Privileges and Immunities Clause as requiring any state to protect general rights of citizenship beyond those that the state already protects for its own citizens, though even a state's own citizens must be allowed to leave the state in order to enjoy privileges and immunities in any other state.


Right to travel

The Privileges and Immunities Clause says that a citizen of one state is entitled to the privileges in another state, from which a right to travel to that other state may be inferred. Under this clause such an
internal passport An internal passport or a domestic passport is an identity document. Uses for internal passports have included restricting citizens of a subdivided state to employment in their own area (preventing their migration to richer cities or regions), cle ...
which is in use in a small minority of countries, would be unconstitutional. Indeed, in the 1982 case of ''
Zobel v Williams Zobel may refer to: * Zobel, a mountain range in the Ethiopian district of Kobo * Zobel (surname), including a list of people with the name * Zobel network constant resistance networks invented by Otto Zobel * Zobel de Ayala family of the Philippi ...
'', a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that the Privileges and Immunities Clause plausibly includes a right of interstate travel. In that case, Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor Sandra Day O'Connor (born March 26, 1930) is an American retired attorney and politician who served as the first female associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. She was both the first woman nominated and th ...
explained:
Article IV's Privileges and Immunities Clause has enjoyed a long association with the rights to travel and migrate interstate. The Clause derives from Art. IV of the Articles of Confederation. The latter expressly recognized a right of "free ingress and regress to and from any other State," in addition to guaranteeing "the free inhabitants of each of these states . . . heprivileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States." While the Framers of our Constitution omitted the reference to "free ingress and regress," they retained the general guaranty of "privileges and immunities." Charles Pinckney, who drafted the current version of Art. IV, told the Convention that this Article was "formed exactly upon the principles of the 4th article of the present Confederation." Commentators, therefore, have assumed that the Framers omitted the express guaranty merely because it was redundant, not because they wished to excise the right from the Constitution. Early opinions by the Justices of this Court also traced a right to travel or migrate interstate to Art. IV's Privileges and Immunities Clause....Similarly, in Paul v. Virginia, the Court found that one of the "undoubt d effects of the Clause was to give "the citizens of each State . . . the right of free ingress into other States, and egress from them....
Despite scholarly and judicial opinions acknowledging that the Privileges and Immunities Clause may include a right to travel, the issue is not without controversy.


Miscellaneous

Unlike the
Dormant Commerce Clause The Dormant Commerce Clause, or Negative Commerce Clause, in American constitutional law, is a legal doctrine that courts in the United States have inferred from the Commerce Clause in Article I of the US Constitution. The primary focus of the d ...
, there is no
market participant The term market participant is another term for economic agent, an actor and more specifically a decision maker in a model of some aspect of the economy. For example, ''buyers'' and ''sellers'' are two common types of agents in partial equilibrium ...
exception to the Privileges and Immunities Clause. That means that even when a state is acting as a producer or supplier for a marketable good or service, the Privileges and Immunities Clause may prevent it from discriminating against non-residents. Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship by the
Jones–Shafroth Act The Jones–Shafroth Act () —also known as the Jones Act of Puerto Rico, Jones Law of Puerto Rico, or as the Puerto Rican Federal Relations Act of 1917— was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Woodrow Wilson on March ...
in 1917; subsequently, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
passed a law (signed by President Truman in 1947) which expressly extended this constitutional clause to the U.S. citizens in the jurisdiction of
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...
:
The rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens of the United States shall be respected in Puerto Rico to the same extent as though Puerto Rico were a State of the Union and subject to the provisions of paragraph 1 of section 2 of article IV of the Constitution of the United States.
In the 1970s the Supreme Court began to recognize the application to Puerto Rico of several Constitutional protections contained in the Bill of Rights. In its opinions, the Court, without elaborating, relied on the
insular cases The Insular Cases are a series of opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901 about the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish–American War. Some scholars also include cases regarding territorial status decided up unti ...
of ''
Downes Downes may refer to: * Downes Sports F.C., the former name of Hinckley Downes F.C. * Downes v. Bidwell, a US Supreme Court case * Downes (surname), people with the surname ''Downes'' * USS Downes, USS ''Downes'', several United States Navy ships S ...
'' and '' Balzac'' as precedent for the application of these constitutional rights.See, e.g., ''
Examining Board of Engineers, Architects and Surveyors v. Flores de Otero ''Examining Board v. Flores de Otero'', 426 U.S. 572 (1976), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States that invalidated a state law that excluded aliens from the practice of civil engineering. The Court invalidated the law on th ...
'', 426 U.S. 572, 600 (1976) (Equal Protection); ''
Torres v. Puerto Rico ''Torres v. Puerto Rico'', 442 U.S. 465 (1979), was a United States Supreme Court case holding that the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure applies to Puerto Rico.. Facts In 1975, Puerto Rico had passed a law aut ...
'', 442 U.S. 465, 469 (1979) (Fourth Amendment); ''
Posadas de Puerto Rico v. Tourism Co. ''Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Co. of Puerto Rico'', 478 U.S. 328 (1986), was a 1986 appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States to determine whether Puerto Rico's Games of Chance Act of 1948 is in legal compliance with the Un ...
'', 478 U.S. 328, 331 n.1 (1986) (First Amendment).


Footnotes


Bibliography

* Farber, Daniel A.; Eskridge, William N., Jr.; Frickey, Philip P. ''Constitutional Law: Themes for the Constitution's Third Century''. Thomson-West Publishing, 2003. * Hall, Kermit L. ed. ''The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, Second Edition''.
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
Press, 2005. * Rich, William J. "Why 'Privileges or Immunities'? An Explanation of the Framers' Intent," ''Akron Law Review,'' 42 (no. 4, 2009), 1111–27.


See also

*
Privileges or Immunities Clause The Privileges or Immunities Clause is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. Along with the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment, this clause became part of the Constitution on July 9, 1868. Text of the clause The cl ...
*
Baldwin v. Fish and Game Commission of Montana ''Baldwin v. Fish & Game Commission of Montana'', 436 U.S. 371 (1978), was a United States Supreme Court case that affirmed the right of the state of Montana to charge higher fees for out-of-state elk hunters. Background In the state of Montana, ...
*
Sohappy v. Smith ''Sohappy v. Smith'', 302 F. Supp. 899 (D. Or. 1969), was a federal case heard by the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, decided in 1969 and amended in 1975. It began with fourteen members of the Yakama who sued the U.S. ...


External links


The Founders’ Constitution
provides source materials regarding the original meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause.

describes case law relevant to the Privileges and Immunities Clause. {{DEFAULTSORT:Privileges And Immunities Clause Article Four of the United States Constitution Clauses of the United States Constitution