The Privileges or Immunities Clause is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
.
Along with the rest of the
Fourteenth Amendment, this clause became part of the Constitution on July 9, 1868.
Text of the clause
The clause states:
Drafting and adoption
The primary author of the Privileges or Immunities Clause was Congressman
John Bingham
John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815 – March 19, 1900) was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assist ...
of Ohio. The common historical view is that Bingham's primary inspiration, at least for his initial prototype of this Clause, was the
Privileges ''and'' Immunities Clause in
Article Four of the United States Constitution
Article Four of the United States Constitution outlines the relationship between the various states, as well as the relationship between each state and the United States federal government. It also empowers Congress to admit new states and admin ...
, which provided that "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States".
On February 3, 1866, the
Joint Committee on Reconstruction
The Joint Committee on Reconstruction, also known as the Joint Committee of Fifteen, was a joint committee of the 39th United States Congress that played a major role in Reconstruction in the wake of the American Civil War. It was created to "inqu ...
(also known as the "Joint Committee of Fifteen") voted in favor of a draft constitutional amendment proposed by Bingham. The draft constitutional amendment provided:
This language closely tracked the existing language in the Privileges and Immunities Clause. On February 28, 1866, Bingham expressed his opinion that this draft language would give Congress power to "secure to the citizens of each State all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States in the several States", and he added that "
e proposition pending before the House is simply a proposition to arm the Congress…with the power to enforce the bill of rights as it stands in the constitution today. It hath that extent—no more…If the State laws do not interfere, those immunities follow under the Constitution".
According to Bingham, Congress lacked the power to enforce the Privileges and Immunities Clause under the original, unamended U.S. Constitution, and so he wanted the privileges and immunities of United States citizens to become a part of the Fourteenth Amendment.
On May 14, 1868 he stated that the aim of the Privileges or Immunities Clause is that the constitution of a U.S. state "never should be so construed, and never should be so enforced as to deprive any citizen of the United States of the rights and privileges of a citizen of the United States within the limits of that State. The fourteenth article of the amendments of the Constitution secures this power to the Congress of the United States."
As he stated on January 30, 1871 in the House Report No. 22 from the
House Judiciary Committee
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
, which he led, the Privileges or Immunities Clause was deemed necessary for the enforcement of the Privileges or Immunities Clause as an express limitation upon the powers of the States.
The rights and privileges of a citizen of the United States were defined by Congress in the
Civil Rights Act of 1866
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (, enacted April 9, 1866, reenacted 1870) was the first United States federal law to define citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. It was mainly intended, in the wake of the Amer ...
:
Subsequently, on April 28, 1866, the Joint Committee of Fifteen voted in favor of a second draft proposed by Congressman Bingham, which would ultimately be adopted into the Constitution. The Joint Committee no longer tracked the existing language in
Article Four as the Committee had previously done. On May 10, 1866, in the closing debate on the House floor, Bingham nevertheless quoted Article IV:
The
Fourteenth Amendment was approved by the House later that day. Michigan Senator
Jacob M. Howard introduced the amendment in the Senate, and gave a speech in which he discussed the meaning of this clause. Howard noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had never squarely addressed the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article IV, which therefore made the effect of the new Privileges or Immunities Clause somewhat uncertain.
Congress gave final approval to the Privileges or Immunities Clause when the House
proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the states for ratification on June 13, 1866. There was much discussion of this proposed clause as the amendment awaited ratification by the states. For example, according to a November 15, 1866 pseudonymous letter published in the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'':
" State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." This is intended for the enforcement of the Second Section of the Fourth Article of the Constitution, which declares that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens in the several States.
We have seen, in the first number, what privileges and immunities were intended. The same authorities have held that the negro of African descent was not a citizen within the meaning of the term, as used in this and other articles of the Constitution; that he was not one of the "peoples" who ordained that sacred charter; that as a slave he was only three-fifth of a "number," but as a free man he was a whole number to be counted for representation, and a whole "person," who might be held to involuntary "service," and reclaimed in any State to which he might escape. The free colored man could have no protection in any slave State during the existence of the relation of master and slave.
He could not change his residence, nor travel at pleasure; he could neither buy, sell nor hold property; he was liable to be enslaved under various circumstances, and such laws were often enforced. Those who contend for "the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was," affect to acknowledge the freedom of the colored people; but, by a series of unfriendly legislation, many of the states construe that freedom to mean no acknowledgment of citizenship and the enjoyment of very few rights. Without enumerating the disgraceful particulars of legislation, it must be apparent to every candid mind, that the Constitution must be so amended as to place restrictions upon the States, or else the Negro must be virtually reenslaved.
The clause, together with the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment, became part of the Constitution in July 1868.
Interpretation after adoption
Many judges and scholars have interpreted this clause, and the ''
Slaughter-House 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 pr ...
''decided in 1873 have thus far been the most influential.
Pre-''Slaughter-House''
On January 30, 1871, the
House Judiciary Committee
The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, also called the House Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives. It is charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, a ...
, led by John Bingham, released a House Report No. 22, which was authored by Bingham himself,
interpreting the Fourteenth's privileges or immunities this way (Emphasis added):
The clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," does not, in the opinion of the committee, refer to privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States ''other than those privileges and immunities embraced in the original text of the Constitution, article four, section two''. The Fourteenth Amendment, it is believed, ''did not add to the privileges or immunities before mentioned'', but was deemed necessary for the enforcement as an express limitation upon the powers of the States. It had been judicially determined that the first Eight Amendments of the Constitution were not limitations on the power of the States, ''and it was apprehended that the same might be held of the provision of the second section, fourth article.''
Shortly thereafter, on March 31, 1871, Bingham elaborated:
I hope the gentleman now knows why I changed the form of the amendment of February, 1866. Mr. Speaker, that the scope and meaning of the limitations imposed by the first section, fourteenth amendment of the Constitution may be more fully understood, permit me to say that the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as contradistinguished from citizens of a State, are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States.
One of the earliest judicial interpretations of the Privileges or Immunities Clause was ''Garnes v. McCann'', Ohio Sup. Ct., in 1871. In it Judge John Day interpreted the clause to protect enumerated constitutional rights such as those listed in the Bill of Rights, but not unenumerated common-law civil rights. He wrote:
This ase
Ase may refer to:
* Ase, Nigeria, a town in Delta State, Nigeria
* -ase, a suffix used for the names of enzymes
* Aṣẹ, a West African philosophical concept
* American Sign Language (ISO 639-3 code: ase)
See also
* Åse (disambiguation)
* ...
involves the equity as to what privileges or immunities are embraced in the inhibition of this clause. We are not aware that this has been as yet judicially settled. The language of the clause, however, taken in connection with other provisions of the amendment, and of the constitution of which it forms a part, affords strong reasons for believing that it includes only such privileges or immunities as are derived from, or recognized by, the constitution of the United States. A broader interpretation opens into a field of conjecture limitless as the range of speculative theories, and might work such limitations of the power of the States to manage and regulate their local institutions and affairs as were never contemplated by the amendment.
The ''Slaughter-House Cases''
The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the
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 ...
is unique among constitutional provisions in that some scholars believe it was substantially read out of the Constitution in a 5–4 decision of the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in the ''
Slaughter-House 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 pr ...
'' of 1873.
[''In Re Slaughter-House Cases'']
83 U.S. 36
(1872) The Clause has remained virtually dormant since, but in 2010 this clause was the basis for the fifth and deciding vote in the case of ''
McDonald v. Chicago'', regarding application of the
Second Amendment of the United States Constitution to the states.
In the ''Slaughter-House Cases'' the court recognized two types of citizenship. The rights citizens have by being citizens of the United States are covered under the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment, while the rights citizens have by being citizens of a state fall under the
Privileges and Immunities Clause
The Privileges and Immunities Clause ( U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents a state from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner. Additionally, a right of interstate ...
of
Article Four.
The Supreme Court did not prevent application of the Bill of Rights to the states via the Privileges or Immunities Clause in ''Slaughter-House'', but rather addressed whether a state monopoly statute violated the natural right of a person to do business and engage in his trade or vocation. In other words, no provision of the
Bill of Rights
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
was at issue in that case, nor was any other right that followed under the U.S. Constitution.
In ''
obiter dicta
''Obiter dictum'' (usually used in the plural, ''obiter dicta'') is a Latin phrase meaning "other things said",''Black's Law Dictionary'', p. 967 (5th ed. 1979). that is, a remark in a legal opinion that is "said in passing" by any judge or arbitr ...
'',
Justice Miller's opinion in ''Slaughter-House'' went so far as to acknowledge that the privileges or immunities of a citizen of the United States include at least some rights listed in the first eight amendments: "The right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances ... are rights of the citizen guaranteed by the Federal Constitution". The Privileges or Immunities Clause was perhaps originally intended to
incorporate
Incorporation may refer to:
* Incorporation (business), the creation of a corporation
* Incorporation of a place, creation of municipal corporation such as a city or county
* Incorporation (academic), awarding a degree based on the student having ...
the first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights against the state governments, while also incorporating other constitutional rights against the state governments such as the privilege 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 ...
''. However, that incorporation has instead been achieved mostly by means of the
Due Process Clause
In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Post-''Slaughter-House''
In the 1947 case of ''
Adamson v. California'', Supreme Court Justice
Hugo Black
Hugo Lafayette Black (February 27, 1886 – September 25, 1971) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A ...
argued in his dissent that the framers intended the Privileges or Immunities Clause to apply the Bill of Rights against the states. Black argued that the framers' intent should control the Court's interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and he attached a lengthy appendix that quoted extensively from John Bingham's congressional statements. However, Black's position on the Privileges or Immunities Clause fell one vote short of a majority in the ''Adamson'' case.
In the 1948 case of ''
Oyama v. California
''Oyama v. State of California'', 332 U.S. 633 (1948), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that specific provisions of the 1913 and 1920 California Alien Land Laws abridged the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Four ...
'', a majority of the Court found that California had violated Fred Oyama's right to own land, a privilege of citizens of the United States.
Legal scholars disagree about the precise meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, although there are some aspects that are less controversial than others.
William Van Alstyne
William Warner Van Alstyne (February 8, 1934 – January 29, 2019) was an American attorney, law professor, and constitutional law scholar. Prior to retiring in 2012, he held the named position of Lee Professor of Law at William and Mary Law Sch ...
has characterized the coverage of the Privileges or Immunities Clause this way:
Roger Pilon
Roger Pilon (born November 28, 1942) is Vice President for Legal Affairs for the Cato Institute, and an American libertarian legal theorist. In particular, he has developed a libertarian version of the rights theory of his teacher, noted philosoph ...
of the
Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
has said that the meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment depends upon the meaning of its counterpart in Article IV: the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Pilon further urges that the Article IV Clause should be reinterpreted as protecting a wide variety of natural rights, despite "its more recent history of interpretation or enforcement".
On the other hand, Kurt Lash of the
University of Illinois College of Law
The University of Illinois College of Law (Illinois Law or UIUC Law) is the law school of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a public university in Champaign, Illinois. It was established in 1897 and offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S ...
has argued that, at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, the privileges and immunities of "citizens of the United States" as referred to in the Fourteenth Amendment were understood as a class distinct from the privileges and immunities of "Citizens in the several States" as referred to in Article IV. Under this interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause as an "antebellum term of art", ''Slaughter-House'' is consistent with the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Like Roger Pilon, some of the framers of the Privileges or Immunities Clause anticipated that it could protect (from state infringement) a broad range of rights far exceeding what had been enumerated in the Bill of Rights. However, as Pilon notes, that was often because of their interpretation of the Privileges and Immunities Clause in the original unamended Constitution. Regarding that interpretation of the older clause,
Justice Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 199 ...
has noted that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment realized the Supreme Court had not yet "undertaken to define either the nature or extent of the privileges and immunities" in the original unamended Constitution.
['']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 ...
''
526 U.S. 489
(1999). Several analyses of the Privileges or Immunities Clause were noted by Justice Thomas in the ''Saenz'' case, including these:
*Currie, David. ''The Constitution in the Supreme Court'' 341-351 (1985) (Clause is an antidiscrimination provision)
*Crosskey, William. ''Politics and the Constitution in the History of the United States'', Volume 2, pp. 1089-1095 (1953) (Clause incorporates first eight amendments of the Bill of Rights)
*Siegan, Bernard. ''Supreme Court's Constitution'' 46-71 (1987) (Clause guarantees Lockean conception of natural rights)
* Ackerman, Bruce. Constitutional Politics/Constitutional Law, 99 ''Yale Law Journal'' 453, 521-536 (1989) (same)
* Berger, Raoul.
Government by Judiciary
' 30 (2d ed. 1997) (Clause forbids race discrimination with respect to rights listed in the Civil Rights Act of 1866)
* Bork, Robert. ''The Tempting of America'' 166 (1990) (Clause is inscrutable and should be treated as if it had been obliterated by an ink blot) The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment left that matter of interpretation in the hands of the judiciary.
In the 2010 case of ''
McDonald v. Chicago'', Justice Thomas, while concurring with the majority in declaring the Second Amendment applicable to state and local governments, declared that he had reached the same conclusion only through the Privileges or Immunities Clause. Legal scholar
Randy Barnett
Randy Evan Barnett (born February 5, 1952) is an American legal scholar. He serves as the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is the director of the Georg ...
argues that since no other justice, either in majority or dissent, attempted to question his rationale, this constitutes a revival of the Privileges or Immunities Clause. In the 2019 case of ''
Timbs v. Indiana'' where the court incorporated the
Eighth Amendment against
excessive fines
The Eighth Amendment (Amendment VIII) to the United States Constitution protects against imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments. This amendment was adopted on December 15, 1791, along with the rest of the ...
against state governments, Justice Thomas again argued in a concurrence that the right should have been incorporated via the Privileges or Immunities Clause.
Justice Gorsuch also agreed in a separate concurrence that the Privileges or Immunities Clause "may well
ave been
''Alta Velocidad Española'' (''AVE'') is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . As of December 2021, the Spanish high-speed rail network, on part of which the AVE se ...
the appropriate vehicle for incorporation"
In the 2020 case of ''
Ramos v. Louisiana'', Justice Thomas again argued in favor of the Privileges or Immunities Clause rather than the Due Process Clause.
Redundancy issues
One of the arguments against interpreting the Privileges or Immunities Clause as a requirement that the states comply with the
Bill of Rights
A bill of rights, sometimes called a declaration of rights or a charter of rights, is a list of the most important rights to the citizens of a country. The purpose is to protect those rights against infringement from public officials and pri ...
has been that such an interpretation would render the
Due Process Clause
In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
of the Fourteenth Amendment redundant, due to the
Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause.
Although constitutional scholars such as
Raoul Berger
Raoul Berger (January 4, 1901 – September 23, 2000)Philip_Kurland.html" ;"title="ith Philip Kurland">ith Philip Kurland
* ''The Fourteenth Amendment and the Bill of Rights'' (1989)
See also
*Living Constitution
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger ...
have raised this question,
Akhil Amar
Akhil Reed Amar (born September 6, 1958) is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in constitutional law and criminal procedure. He holds the position of Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, and is an ad ...
argues that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment wanted to extend the due process right not only to citizens, but to all other persons as well, which required a separate
Due Process Clause
In United States constitutional law, a Due Process Clause is found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibits arbitrary deprivation of "life, liberty, or property" by the government except as ...
. The Fifth Amendment refers to "persons" and not "citizens" within its text, but it would only be incorporated by the Privileges or Immunities Clause as to citizens. An alternative or additional rationale for explicitly including the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment is that the Privileges or Immunities Clause only forbids states from making or enforcing laws, and therefore does not bar states from harming people outside the legal process.
Another redundancy issue is posed by an interpretation of the Privileges or Immunities Clause that views it as simply a guarantee of equality. Proponents of that interpretation acknowledge that, "the natural response to this approach is to say that ... any equality-based reading of the clause is redundant because the
Equal Protection Clause
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...
provides the necessary ground and more".
Right to travel
The right of citizens to travel from one state to another was already considered to be protected by the
Privileges and Immunities Clause
The Privileges and Immunities Clause ( U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents a state from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner. Additionally, a right of interstate ...
of the original, unamended Constitution. For example, in ''
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 ...
'', the Supreme Court listed a number of rights of citizens which "it cannot be supposed that
he foundersintended to secure" for free black people, one of which was "the right to enter any other State whenever they pleased."
[60 U.S. 393, 417 (1857).] Moreover, the right to travel has additional components, such as the right to take up residence and become a citizen of a different state. The Fourteenth Amendment's
Citizenship Clause
The Citizenship Clause is the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which was adopted on July 9, 1868, which states:
This clause reversed a portion of the ''Dred Scott v. Sandford'' decision, which had d ...
addresses residency: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
In the 1999 case of ''
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 ...
'', Justice
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens (April 20, 1920 – July 16, 2019) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1975 to 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldes ...
, writing for the majority, said that the "right to travel" also has a component protected by the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment:
Justice
Samuel Freeman Miller
Samuel Freeman Miller (April 5, 1816 – October 13, 1890) was an American lawyer and physician who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme ...
had written in the ''Slaughter-House Cases'' that the right to become a citizen of a state by residing in the state "is conferred by the very article under consideration".
See also
*
Privileges and Immunities Clause
The Privileges and Immunities Clause ( U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 2, Clause 1, also known as the Comity Clause) prevents a state from treating citizens of other states in a discriminatory manner. Additionally, a right of interstate ...
* ''
Oyama v. California
''Oyama v. State of California'', 332 U.S. 633 (1948), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court decided that specific provisions of the 1913 and 1920 California Alien Land Laws abridged the rights and privileges guaranteed by the Four ...
'', 332 U.S. 633 (1948).
* ''
McDonald v. Chicago'', 561 U.S. 742 (2010) (Justice Thomas' concurrence)
* ''
Timbs v. Indiana'', 586 U.S. _ (2019) (Justice Thomas' and Justice Gorsuch's concurrences)
* ''
Ramos v. Louisiana'', 590 U.S. _ (2020) (Justice Thomas' concurrence)
References
External links
Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1866.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Privileges Or Immunities Clause
Clauses of the United States Constitution
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution