Sample Brief
The Slaughterhouse Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873)
Facts: To clean up the pollution of the Mississippi River caused by slaughterhouses, the Louisiana legislature passed an act that prohibited the slaughtering of livestock, except at one large slaughterhouse, and established a rate structure for their slaughter. A group of independent butchers rendered jobless by the legislation brought suit against the company to have the statute declared unconstitutional. State courts held in favor of the monopoly.
Issues: Does the legislative establishment of a monopoly slaughterhouse violate the 13th Amendment? the 14th Amendment's privileges and immunities clause? its equal protection clause? its due process clause?
Held: No. No. No. No.
Reasoning: Miller, for a 5-4 Court. l) There is no violation of the 13th Amendment because it is concerned generally with blacks and specifically with systems of involuntary servitude -- slavery -- not present here. 2) The Court distinguishes between state and national citizenship, argues that the 14th Amendment protects only the privileges and immunities of national citizenship (e.g., the rights to go to the seat of government, have access to seaports and courts of justice, etc.), and asserts that the amendment did not create any new rights enforceable against the states. Since the legislation at hand impinges on no right of national citizenship protected from state action by the 14th, it does not violate the Constitution. 3) and 4) Neither the concepts of due process nor equal protection has ever been construed by a court to comprehend deprivations of property akin to those addressed in this case, and the Court refuses to entertain a construction that would so extend them.
Decision: The decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court is affirmed.
Concurrences: None.
Dissents: Field (with Chase, Swayne, and Bradley). The privileges and immunities clause of the 14th Amendment includes rights that belong to "the citizens of all free governments." This comprehends "the right to pursue a lawful employment...without other restraint than such as equally affects all persons." Thus, the legislation is unconstitutional.
Bradley. Legislation denying lawful employment to a category of citizens deprives them of their "right of choice." As such, it denies them liberty without due process and equal protection and violates the 14th Amendment.
Significance: This was the initial interpretation of two civil war amendments (the 13th and 14th). The Court held that they were largely applicable to blacks, did not create new rights of national scope beyond those expressly articulated, and did little to alter the balance of powers between the governments of the nation and states -- the essential nature of federalism.