I. Structure of Rights
a. Bill of rights
i. Adoption of a bill of rights was the condition that the thirteen
original states imposed in exchange for ratification of the
Constitution.
ii. Defenders of the Constitution feared that the enumeration of
specific rights would imply the exclusion of others, critics of the
Constitution warned that, without these express protections, the
federal government would have too much power.
iii. The critics prevailed, and the states immediately adopted ten of
the twelve amendments proposed by the first Congress.
iv. At first, the limits on government action in the Bill of Rights
only applied to the federal government, and not to state or local
governments, or their officers
b. Slaughterhouse cases
i. The Thirteenth Amendment solely prohibits slavery as
experienced by Africans in the United States before the Civil
War, and the Fourteenth Amendment (which is largely geared
towards the protections of emancipated slaves and African
Americans) only protects rights guaranteed by the United States
and not individual states
1. The 13thamendment does not protect an American
citizen’s right to carry out a chosen occupation
ii. 13th amendment
1. Purpose: to eradicate black African slavery
2. Court limited slavery to the black-african slavery
that we are familiar with in the US.
3. Does not require state actor
c. 14th Amendment
iii. Establishes citizenship - Citizenship Clause
1. Anybody that is born in the US is a citizen
iv. The bill of rights does not have an equal protection clause in it
1. SC has interpreted the 5th amendment due process
clause to operate the same as the 14th amendments
equal protection clause
2. 14th amendment says states should not violate
equal protection
v. Scope of rights under 14th
1. Privileges and immunities
a. The rights that we can claim as respective
sovereigns (citizens to state and US)
b. The Privileges and Immunities Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment only protects the
privileges and immunities guaranteed by the
