Georgetown Center for the Constitution

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.

Related Citations

Stewart Jay, Origins of the Privileges and Immunities of State Citizenship Under Article IV, 45 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 1 (2013).

Concluding, based on evidence from the Articles of Confederation and Constitution creation periods and the legal meanings of “privileges” and “immunities” in the eighteenth century, that the American public at the time of ratification understood the Clause as protecting a legal guarantee to the rights enjoyed by the citizens of another state when traveling to that state.

Robert G. Natelson, The Original Meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause, 43 Ga. L. Rev. 1117 (2009).

Arguing that “privileges and immunities” was a legal term of art that was understood at the time of ratification to ensure citizens traveling to other states equal access to a dynamic set of benefits conferred by the positive law of that state and enjoyed by its citizens.

David R. Upham, Corfield v. Coryell and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship, 83 Tex. L. Rev. 1483 (2005).

Contending that the Corfield v. Coryell greatly influenced the drafting of the later Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chester J. Antieau, Paul’s Perverted Privileges or the True Meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article Four, 9 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1 (1967).

Arguing that the Privileges and Immunities Clause is not limited to ensuring protection for citizens sojourning into another state but, rather, protects American citizens’ basic fundamental rights of freemen.