Privileges and Immunities in the United States

Legal benefits flowing from one’s status as a citizen. A privilege is a benefit or an advantage, while an immunity frees a person from an obligation or a penalty. Certain privileges and immunities exist for a person by virtue of his or her citizenship. The U.S. Constitution contains two references to privileges and immunities. Article IV, Section 2, provides that the “Citizens of each State be entitled to the Privileges and Immunities of citizens of the several States.” The purpose of this clause was to ensure that out-of-state citizens receive the same treatment as a state’s own citizens. The clause established parity across the states. The Fourteenth Amendment also provides that “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the United States.” This section of the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, was a specific response to the Black Codes, which in many Southern states had the effect of restoring pre-Civil War conditions of slavery.

Analysis and Relevance

The protection of privileges and immunities was severely limited by the Slaughterhouse Cases (16 Wallace 36: 1873), in which the Supreme Court distinguished between federal and state citizenship. The Court placed most key civil and political rights within the state citizenship category. That limited the privileges and immunities of federal citizenship to such rights as interstate travel, protection while abroad, and participation in federal elections. The protections afforded by federal citizenship through the Fourteenth Amendment have expanded substantially over the years since Slaughterhouse, but the expansion has taken place under the due process and equal protection clauses rather than the privilege and immunities clauses.

Notes and References

Definition of Privileges and Immunities from the American Law Dictionary, 1991, California

Privileges and Immunities in the United States