Chapter 8. THE BILL OF RIGHTS AND THE CIVIL WAR AMENDMENTS

1. The Pre-Civil War Background

• what individual rights protections are provided by the Constitution as against the states?
• Contract Clause (to be discussed later)
• Art. IV P&I
• Corfield v. Coryell, p. 455 (Cir. Ct. 1823): what rights are encompassed under the heading "privileges and immunities"?
• Paul v. Virginia, p. 456 (1868): are all "persons" protected? Can a corporation be a "citizen"? If not, why not?
• The Bill of Rights as such: BARRON V. MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, p. 457 (1833)
• What is the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the 5^th Amendment? Murray's Lessee (1856) and Dred Scott (1857), pp. 459-60
 
2. The Initial Interpretation of the Civil War Amendments

• what regulation, by what government, for what purpose?
• what constitutional bases for challenge?
• 13th A. (involuntary servitude)
• 14th A.
• due process
• equal protection
• privileges or immunities
• compare Art. IV P&I
• should 14th A. P&I be read as an extension of Art. IV P&I, making it uniform from state to state?
• Civil Rights Act of 1866, as precursor to 14^th A. (text below)
• Corfield v. Coryell as precursor to CRA1866
• should it be read as extending the Bill of Rights to the states?
• who are its beneficiaries?
• should fundamental rights be limited to this group?
• Saenz v. Roe, p. 472 (1999): limitation (for the first year) on welfare benefits for

new migrants to the state, to the amount they would have received in the state from
which they came: is 14th A. P&I essential to the result in this case?
 
 

Compare with the 14th Amendment s. 1:

Civil Rights Act of 1866, §1 (39 Stat. ch. 31, §1):
"Be it enacted...That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding." (emphasis added)