All But Redacted: The Privileges or Immunities Clause | Episode 3
Podcast (bound-by-oath): Play in new window | Download
[Click here for Episode 1. And click here for Episode 2.]
The Privileges or Immunities Clause was meant to be one of the key liberty-protecting provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Clause says: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” That sounds like a big deal, right? It’s not. The Clause has been virtually read out of the Constitution, and for people trying to vindicate their civil rights in court, it’s been of little practical use. That story—the near redaction of the Clause—begins with the Slaughterhouse Cases, which the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1873.
On Episode Three of Bound By Oath: What rights were the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment seeking to protect through the Privileges or Immunities Clause? And what happened to the Clause?
Click here for transcript.
Click for iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Stitcher.
Guests
Chris Green, University of Mississippi School of Law
Randy Barnett, Georgetown Law
With appearances by:
Kurt Lash, University of Richmond School of Law
Aderson Francois, Georgetown Law
Martha Jones, Johns Hopkins University
Josh Blackman, South Texas College of Law Houston
Sheldon Gilbert, National Constitution Center
Resources
C-SPAN Coverage of Professor Barnett’s talk on Slaughterhouse at the U.S. Supreme Court Historical Society.
C-SPAN Coverage of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Georgetown Law Center’s mock retrial of Bradwell v. Illinois.
Bench Memo for the Re-argument of The Slaughter-House Cases, by Nicholas Mosvick
The Slaughterhouse Cases: Regulation, Reconstruction, and the Fourteenth Amendment, by Ronald M. Labbé and Jonathan Lurie
Equal Citizenship, Civil Rights, and the Constitution: The Original Sense of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, by Chris Green
Interracial Marriage and the Original Understanding of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, by David Upham
From Antislavery Lawyer to Chief Justice: The Remarkable but Forgotten Career of Salmon P. Chase, by Randy Barnett
Recent Episodes
November 20, 2023
Season 3 Teaser

Season 3 of Bound By Oath is coming soon! Click here for transcript.
Read MoreMarch 16, 2022
State Remedies | SEASON 2, EP. 11

With the doors to federal court closing on civil rights claims, this final episode of Season 2 heads to new terrain: state court. Click here for […]
Read MoreNovember 10, 2021
Prosecutors, Perjurers, and Other Non-Persons — Part 2 | Season 2, Ep. 10

In 1983, in the case of Briscoe v. LaHue, the Supreme Court ruled that government employees who commit perjury at trial are absolutely immune from […]
Read MoreNovember 05, 2021
Prosecutors, Perjurers, and Other Non-Persons — Part 1 | Season 2, Ep. 10

In 2005, Charles Rehberg annoyed some politically powerful people in his community of Albany, Georgia, and found himself facing serious criminal charges—charges that were completely […]
Read More