The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is arguably the most historically important clause of the most significant part of the US Constitution. Designed to be a central guarantor of civil rights and civil liberties following Reconstruction, this clause could have been at the center of most of the country's constitutional controversies, not only during Reconstruction, but in the modern period as well; yet for a variety of historical reasons, including precedent-setting narrow interpretations, the Privileges or Immunities Clause has been cast aside by the Supreme Court. This book investigates the Clause in a textualist-originalist manner, an approach increasingly popular among both academics and judges, to examine the meanings actually expressed by the text in its original context. Arguing for a revival of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, author Christopher Green lays the groundwork for assessing the originalist credentials of such areas of law as school segregation, state action, sex discrimination, incorporation of the Bill of Rights against states, the relationship between tradition and policy analysis in assessing fundamental rights, and the Fourteenth Amendment rights of corporations and aliens. Thoroughly argued and historically well-researched, this book demonstrates that the Privileges or Immunities Clause protects liberty and equality, and it will be of interest to legal academics, American legal historians, and anyone interested in American constitutional history.

The notion of equality in the American system is explored through individual discussions of race, sex, religion, ethnic background asking the question who belongs?

"A rich and impassioned exploration of the persistence of second-class citizenship in the United States. Roman vividly portrays the injustices concealed by our discourse of equal citizenship."---Gerald Neuman, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law, Harvad Law School --Book Jacket.

For undergraduate courses in Constitutional Law, Civil Rights & Liberties, Introduction to American Government,Introduction to Law and Legal Process, and Judicial Process & Politics. Examining contemporary and perennial constitutional issues in civil liberties and rights, this text engages students in an exploration of how and why U.S. Supreme Court Justices have interpreted the provisions of the U.S. Constitution relating to freedom of expression and religion, and equal protection and privacy.

The privileges and immunities clauses in the U.S. Constitution forbids one state from discriminating against citizens of another state with respect to privileges and immunities that state affords its own citizens. Of course, the history, interpretation, and rulings on Article IV and the Fourteenth Amendment are much more nuanced and controversial. Bogen details the origins and development of the concept of privileges and immunities, and provides an in-depth analysis of the symbiotic relationship between Article IV and the Fourteenth Amendment, detailing the current understanding of the clauses as reflected in the decisions of the Supreme Court. The author concludes by arguing that the tension between the Framers' intent to protect fundamental human rights and the Court's current confused and inappropriate use of rights language may be resolved by applying customary international human rights to the states. An extensive bibliographic essay and a table of cases are provided to guide further reading on the topic.

The author begins with the birth of civil rights - the circumstances, acts and legacy of the 39th Congress, constitutional origins, passage and structure of the Act, moves through the Fourteenth Amendment and into restrictive interpretations and quiescent years, and finishes with a chapter on discerning the future from the past and the contemporary significance of the Act.

A renowned constitutional scholar and a rising star provide a balanced and definitive analysis of the origins and original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Adopted in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment profoundly changed the Constitution, giving the federal judiciary and Congress new powers to protect the fundamental rights of individuals from being violated by the states. Yet, according to Randy Barnett and Evan Bernick, the Supreme Court has long misunderstood or ignored the original meaning of the amendmentÕs key clauses, covering the privileges and immunities of citizenship, due process of law, and the equal protection of the laws. Barnett and Bernick contend that the Fourteenth Amendment was the culmination of decades of debates about the meaning of the antebellum Constitution. Antislavery advocates advanced arguments informed by natural rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the common law. They also utilized what is today called public-meaning originalism. Although their arguments lost in the courts, the Republican Party was formed to advance an antislavery political agenda, eventually bringing about abolition. Then, when abolition alone proved insufficient to thwart Southern repression and provide for civil equality, the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted. It went beyond abolition to enshrine in the Constitution the concept of Republican citizenship and granted Congress power to protect fundamental rights and ensure equality before the law. Finally, Congress used its powers to pass Reconstruction-era civil rights laws that tell us much about the original scope of the amendment. With evenhanded attention to primary sources, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment shows how the principles of the Declaration eventually came to modify the Constitution and proposes workable doctrines for implementing the key provisions of Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Race, as this book demonstrates, has been a factor in the Constitution's framing, ratification, and development. Examined specifically and in detail are: * the accommodation of slavery to create a viable republic; * the Union's experience with and eventual undoing by slavery; * reconstruction of the nation pursuant to seminal principles of racial equality; * persisting efforts to limit or defeat constitutional provisions for equality and opportunity; * the desegregation mandate and its devolution; and * modern problems in accounting for a legacy of racial discrimination and disadvantage. The Constitution is the overarching statement of popular will and consent and thus an especially apt prism through which to discern racial truths and the context and values that influence them. Constitutional law affords a particularly useful departure point for acquiring perspective upon moral reality and legal possibility. This book is rich in its analysis of the Supreme Court's response to society's ambiguities, concerns, and conscience in the matters of race. In examining problems and issues which historically have engendered dispute and division, it suggests a potentially consensual basis of ascertaining the Constitution's still unfinished business. The nation's enduring ambivalence and the price it pays in less than consistent constitutional interpretations on racial questions is both enlightening and disturbing. The questions, of course, are at the heart of a democracy and involve personhood, citizenship, liberty, and equality. The Constitution and Race will be valuable to political scientists, historians, sociologists, lawyers, and students.

In a set of cases decided at the end of the 19th century, the Supreme Court declared that Congress had “plenary power” to regulate immigration, Indian tribes, and new territories. Attuned to the demands of a new century, the author argues for abandonment of the plenary power cases, and for more flexible conceptions of sovereignty and citizenship.