PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES, a phrase found in art. 4, sec. 2, of the U. S. constitution: " The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immuni ties of citizens in the several states," and in art. 14 of the amendinents: " No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Taken together, the provisions secure to each citizen the maintain ing of all his rights of citizenship, and forbid the refusal by local authorities of equal advantages to all. The object of the first clause is to secure such general rights as redress in the courts of the foreign state, power to purchase and sell property, and priv of transit. Thus, while the rights of the states in their proper limits are not inCerfeed with, that uniformity of the conditions and privileges of life which pertain to a single nation is obtained. It is impossible to define the "privileges and immunities" which properly come within the meaning of the constitution, and the supreme court has declined to undertake their enumeration. A distinction is made between special priv ileges granted to citizens as a part of their citizenship, and enactments designed to confine trade or business by unequal taxation or otherwise. Where persons not having their domicile in a state were refused permission to sell goods by sample, trade-list, card, or catalogue, without the payment of a special license-fee, the statute was held to be unconstitutional, as imposing a discriminating tax. In the clause of the amendment
above quoted the individual is looked on as a citizen of the United States, rather than of the state of his domicile. Thus it would be unconstitutional for a state to enact a law forbidding its citizens to have recourse to the U. S. courts in any class of cases. Every citizen has the right to enjoy the protection of the general government without disturb ance, to use its courts and offices, to navigate its waters, and enter its ports, without restriction by his own or other states. The leading ease on this subject is what is known as the slaughter-house cases (16 Wallace, 36). Here the Louisiana legislature gave to a certain corporation exclusive rights in maintaining slaughter-houses in the city of New Orleans. It was held by the supreme court that the exclusive right was not in its nature. such a fundamental civil right as is included in the meaning of the phrase "privileges and immunities." Three judges dissented. It has also been held that the prohibition of the gale of liquor or its regulation is a matter of state legislation; that the right of a woman to practice law in the state courts did not depend on U. S. citizenship, and could not be enforced by U. S. courts, and that the right to vote is not of necessity a privilege belong ing to all U. S. citizens.