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The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36
Case citation

Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called Reporter s or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported....
 (1873), were a series of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
.

Slaughter-House Cases, represented a block appeal to the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
 testing Section 1 of the relatively new Fourteenth Amendment
Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
 to the Constitution
United States Constitution

The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
. It is viewed as a pivotal case in early civil rights
Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights ensuring things such as the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on sexism, religious intolerance, Racism, Homophobia, etc; individual freedom of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom...
 law, as it narrowly read the Fourteenth Amendment to protect only "privileges or immunities" conferred by virtue of the United States but not state citizenship, a distinction which persists to this day.

Properly known as Slaughter-House Cases, the decision consolidated three similar cases:

  1. The Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live-Stock Landing and Slaughter-House Company
  2. Paul Esteben, L.






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    The Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36
    Case citation

    Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called Reporter s or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported....
     (1873), were a series of cases decided by the Supreme Court of the United States
    Supreme Court of the United States

    The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
    .

    History and legal dispute

    The Slaughter-House Cases, represented a block appeal to the United States Supreme Court
    Supreme Court of the United States

    The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal United States federal courts. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed with th...
     testing Section 1 of the relatively new Fourteenth Amendment
    Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

    The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-American Civil War Reconstruction Amendments that was first intended to secure the rights of former Slavery in the United States....
     to the Constitution
    United States Constitution

    The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America; the Federal Government of the United States; and all the State & local governments and Territorial Administrative bodies contained therein....
    . It is viewed as a pivotal case in early civil rights
    Civil rights

    Civil and political rights are a class of rights ensuring things such as the protection of peoples' physical integrity; procedural fairness in law; protection from discrimination based on sexism, religious intolerance, Racism, Homophobia, etc; individual freedom of freedom of belief, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom...
     law, as it narrowly read the Fourteenth Amendment to protect only "privileges or immunities" conferred by virtue of the United States but not state citizenship, a distinction which persists to this day.

    Properly known as Slaughter-House Cases, the decision consolidated three similar cases:

    1. The Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live-Stock Landing and Slaughter-House Company
    2. Paul Esteben, L. Ruch, J. P. Rouede, W. Maylie, S. Firmberg, B. Beaubay, William Fagan, J. D. Broderick, N. Seibel, M. Lannes, J. Gitzinger, J. P. Aycock, D. Verges, The Live-Stock Dealers' and Butchers' Association of New Orleans, and Charles Cavaroc v. The State of Louisiana, ex rel. S. Belden, Attorney-General
    3. The Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live-Stock Landing and Slaughter-House Company
    In 1869, the Louisiana
    Louisiana

    The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
     legislature passed a law that allowed the city of New Orleans
    New Orleans, Louisiana

    New Orleans is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana. New Orleans is the center of the New Orleans metropolitan area metropolitan area, the largest metro area in the state....
     to create a corporation
    Corporation

    A corporation is a legal entity separate from the persons that form it. It is a legal entity owned by individual stockholders. In British tradition it is the term designating a body corporate, where it can be either a corporation sole or a corporation aggregate ....
     that centralized all slaughterhouse
    Slaughterhouse

    A slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir ,or freezing works , is a facility where animals are killed and processed into meat foods....
     operations in the city. The stated purpose of the new arrangement was to restrict the dumping of remains and waste in waterway
    Waterway

    A waterway is any navigable body of water. These include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...
    s and provide a single place for animals to be kept and slaughtered; critics called it a legal monopoly based on political patronage designed to shut down independent butchers. There were a number of provisions in the act creating the corporation, the pertinent being:
    • fixed prices for the offloading and maintenance of livestock
      Livestock

      Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
    • fixed prices for butcher
      Butcher

      A butcher is someone who prepares various meats and other related goods for sale. Many butchers sell their goods in specialized stores, although in the Western world today most meat is sold through supermarkets....
      s who want to use the facilities
    • a clause describing the process of collecting unpaid money
    • a provision for a livestock inspector to ascertain animal health and fitness


    Twenty-five butchers and those involved in the unloading, feeding, slaughtering, and other activities associated with converting livestock into food filed various actions attempting to halt the creation of the new corporation and any contemplated changes to the slaughtering business in New Orleans.

    The lower courts found in favor of the new corporation in all cases. Six cases were appealed to the Supreme Court. The butchers based their claims on the due process
    Due process

    Due process is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law of the land, instead of respecting merely some or most of those legal rights....
    , privileges or immunities
    Privileges or Immunities Clause

    The Privileges or Immunities Clause is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. It states:...
     and equal protection clauses in the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified by the states only five years before the decision in 1868. Their attorney, former Supreme Court Justice John A. Campbell (who had retired due to his Confederate loyalties), was then involved in a number of cases in New Orleans designed to obstruct Radical Reconstruction. He now argued for a new, broad reading of the Fourteenth Amendment that would allow white butchers to "sustain their lives through labor."

    In a five-four decision written by Justice Samuel Freeman Miller issued on April 14, 1873, the Court held to a narrow interpretation of the amendment and ruled that it did not restrict the police powers of the state. The Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities clause
    Privileges or Immunities Clause

    The Privileges or Immunities Clause is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. It states:...
     affected only rights of United States citizenship and not state citizenship. Therefore the butchers' Fourteenth Amendment rights had not been violated. At the time, the Court viewed due process in a procedural light rather than substantively. The Court further held that the amendment was primarily intended to protect former slaves and so could not be broadly applied.

    And,

    Justice Stephen J. Field, joined by three other justices, wrote an influential dissent in which he accepted Campbell's reading of the amendment as not confined to protection of freed slaves, but rather as embracing the common law
    Common law

    Common law refers to law and the corresponding Legal systems of the world developed through legal opinion of courts and similar tribunals , rather than through statute law or Executive ....
     presumption in favor of an individual right to pursue a legitimate occupation. Field's reading of the due process clause of the amendment would prevail in future cases in which the court read the amendment broadly to protect property interests against hostile state laws.

    This case has been and continues to be referred to in some conspiracy theories involving the extension of government powers due to it being the first case following the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to clarify the amendment's clause regarding dual federal and state citizenship.

    Further reading

    • Lurie, Jonathan, and Labbe, Ronald. Regulation, Reconstruction, and the Fourteenth Amendment. Wichita, Kan." University Press of Kansas, 2003. ISBN 0700612904
    • Ross, Michael A. "Justice Miller's Reconstruction: The Slaughter-House Cases, Health Codes, and Civil Rights in New Orleans, 1861-1873." Journal of Southern History. 64:4 (November 1998), 649-676.
    • Ross, Michael A. Justice of Shattered Dreams: Samuel Freeman Miller and the Supreme Court During the Civil War Era. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003. ISBN 0807129240


    See also



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