Freedom of movement under United States law is governed primarily by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the United States Constitution which states, "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States." Since the circuit court ruling in Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Fed. Cas. 546 (1823), freedom of movement has been judicially recognized as a fundamental Constitutional right. In Paul v. Virginia, 75 U.S. 168 (1869), the court defined freedom of movement as "right of free ingress into other States, and egress from them." However, the Supreme Court did not invest the federal government with the authority to protect freedom of movement. Under the "privileges and immunities" clause, this authority was given to the states, a position the court held consistently through the years in cases such as Ward v. Maryland, 79 U.S. 418 (1871), the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1873) and United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629 (1883).Duster, Michael J. "Criminal Justice System Reform Symposium: Note: Out of Sight, Out of Mind: State Attempts to Banish Sex Offenders". Drake Law Review. 53:711 (Spring 2005)."Note: Membership Has Its Privileges and Immunities: Congressional Power to Define and Enforce the Rights of National Citizenship". Harvard Law Review. 102:1925 (June 1989).

Travel within the United States

Constitutional freedom As early as the Articles of Confederation the Congress recognized freedom of movement (Article 4), though the right was thought to be so fundamental during the drafting of the Constitution as to not need explicit enumeration. Mount, Steve; "Things That Are Not In the U.S. Constitution"

The U.S. Supreme Court in Crandall v. Nevada, declared that freedom of movement is a fundamental right and therefore a state cannot inhibit people from leaving the state by taxing them. In United States v. Wheeler, 254 U.S. 281 (1920), the Supreme Court reiterated its position that the Constitution did not grant the federal government the power to protect freedom of movement. However, Wheeler had a significant impact in other ways. For many years, the roots of the Constitution's "privileges and immunities" clause had only vaguely been determined.Bogen, David Skillen. Privileges and Immunities: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution. Westport, Ct.: Praeger Press, 2003. In 1823, the circuit court in Corfield had provided a list of the rights (some fundamental, some not) which the clause could cover.Wadley, James B. "Indian Citizenship and the Privileges and Immunities Clauses of the United States Constitution: An Alternative to the Problems of the Full Faith and Credit and Comity?". Southern Illinois University Law Journal. 31:31 (Fall 2006).Dunlap, Frank L. "Constitutional Law: Power of States to Prevent Entry of Paupers from Other States". California Law Review. 26:5 (July 1938). The Wheeler court dramatically changed this. It was the first to locate the right to travel in the Privileges and Immunities Clause, providing the right with a specific guarantee of constitutional protection.Foscarinis, Maria. "Downward Spiral: Homelessness and Its Criminalization". Yale Law & Policy Review. 14:1 (1996). By reasoning that the clause derived from Article IV of the Articles of Confederation, the decision suggested a narrower set of rights than those enumerated in Corfield, but also more clearly defined those rights as absolutely fundamental.Nelson, William E. The Fourteenth Amendment: From Political Principle to Judicial Doctrine. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988. The Supreme Court began rejecting Wheeler's reasoning within a few years. Finally, in United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966), the Supreme Court overruled Chief Justice White's conclusion that the federal government could protect the right to travel only against state infringement.United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745, 759, n.16.

The Supreme Court has specifically ruled that Crandall does not imply a right to use any particular mode of travel, such as driving an automobile. In Hendrick v. Maryland (1915), the appellant asked the court to void Maryland's motor vehicle statute as a violation of the freedom of movement. The court found "no solid foundation" for the appellant's argument and unanimously held that "in the absence of national legislation covering the subject, a state may rightfully prescribe uniform regulations necessary for public safety and order in respect to the operation upon its highways of all motor vehicles — those moving in interstate commerce as well as others."

The U.S. Supreme Court also dealt with the right to travel in the case of Saenz v. Roe, 526 U.S. 489 (1999). In that case, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, held that the United States Constitution protected three separate aspects of the right to travel among the states:

(1) the right to enter one state and leave another (an inherent right with historical support from the Articles of Confederation),

(2) the right to be treated as a welcome visitor rather than a hostile stranger (protected by the "Privileges and Immunities" clause in Article IV, § 2), and

(3) (for those who become permanent residents of a state) the right to be treated equally to native-born citizens (this is protected by the 14th Amendment's Privileges or Immunities Clause; citing the majority opinion in the Slaughter-House Cases, Justice Stevens said, "the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment ... has always been common ground that this Clause protects the third component of the right to travel.").

Mann Act The 1910 Mann Act (White-Slave Traffic Act) among other things banned the interstate transport of females for otherwise undefined "immoral purposes", which were taken to include consensual extramarital sex. This act was used, in addition to less controversial cases, to allow federal prosecution of unmarried couples who had for some reason come to the attention of the authorities; interracial couples (e.g. boxer Jack Johnson) and people with left-wing views (e.g. Charlie Chaplin) were prosecuted. The Act has since been amended to be gender-neutral and now applies only to sexual activity which is separately illegal (such as prostitution and sex with a minor).

Implications The court's establishment of a strong constitutional right to freedom of movement has had far-reaching effects. For example, the Supreme Court overturned state prohibitions on welfare payments to individuals who had not resided within the jurisdiction for at least one year as an impermissible burden on the right to travel in Shapiro v. Thompson, 394 U.S. 618 (1969). The court also struck down one-year residency requirements for voting in state elections in Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U.S. 330 (1972); one-year waiting periods before receiving state-provided medical care in Memorial Hospital v. Maricopa County, 415 U.S. 250 (1974); and civil service preferences for state veterans in Attorney Gen. of New York v. Soto-Lopez, 476 U.S. 898 (1986). However, it upheld higher fishing and hunting license fees for out-of-state residents in Baldwin v. Fish and Game Commission of Montana, 436 U.S. 371 (1978).Porter, Andrew C. "Comment: Toward a Constitutional Analysis of the Right to Intrastate Travel". Northwestern University Law Review. 86:820 (1992).Zubler, Todd. "The Right to Migrate and Welfare Reform: Time for Shapiro v. Thompson to Take A Hike". Valparaiso University Law Review. 31:893 (Summer 1997).

Current US Code addresses air travel specifically. In , "Sovereignty and use of airspace", the Code specifies that "A citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through the navigable airspace."

A strong right to freedom of movement may yet have even farther-reaching implications. The Supreme Court has acknowledged that freedom of movement is closely related to freedom of association and to freedom of expression. Strong constitutional protection for the right to travel may have significant implications for state attempts to limit abortion rights, ban or refuse to recognize same-sex marriages, and enact anti-crime or consumer protection laws. It may even undermine current court-fashioned concepts of federalism.Simon, Harry. "Towns Without Pity: A Constitutional and Historical Analysis of Official Efforts to Drive Homeless Persons From American Cities". Tulane Law Review. 66:631 (March 1992).Kreimer, Seth F. "The Law of Choice and Choice of Law: Abortion, the Right to Travel, and Extraterritorial Regulation in American Federalism". New York University Law Review. 67:451 (June 1992).Rosen, Mark D. "Extraterritoriality and Political Heterogeneity in American Federalism". University of Pennsylvania Law Review. 150:855 (January 2002).Kreimer, Seth F. "Territoriality and Moral Dissensus: Thoughts on Abortion, Slavery, Gay Marriage and Family Values". Bridgeport Law Review/Quinnipiac Law Review. 16:161 (Spring/Summer 1996).Hemmens, Craig and Bennett, Katherine. "Out in the Street: Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Curfews, and the Constitution". Gonzaga Law Review. 34:267 (1998/1999).

Free speech zones A related issue deals with free speech zones designated during political protests. Although such zones were in use by the 1960s and 1970 due to the Vietnam-era protests, they were not widely reported in the media. However, the controversy over their use resurfaced during the 2001-2009 Bush presidency. In essence, Free Speech Zones prevent a person from having complete mobility as a consequence of their exercising their right to speak freely. Courts have accepted time, place, and manner restrictions on free speech in the United States, but such restrictions must be narrowly tailored, and free speech zones have been the subject of lawsuits.

International travel

History From 1776 to 1783, no state government had a passport requirement. The Articles of Confederation government (1783–1789) did not have a passport requirement. From 1789 through late 1941, the government established under the Constitution required United States passports of citizens only during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and during and shortly after World War I (1914–1918). The passport requirement of the Civil War era lacked statutory authority. After the outbreak of World War I, passports were required by executive order, of December 15, 1915; of March 13, 1916. though there was no statutory authority for the requirement. The Travel Control Act of May 22, 1918, permitted the president, when the United States was at war, to proclaim a passport requirement, and a proclamation was issued on August 18, 1918. of August 18, 1918 Though World War I ended on November 11, 1918, the passport requirement lingered until March 3, 1921.Act of May 22, 1918, ; Proc. No. 1473, ; Act of March 3, 1921, . There was an absence of a passport requirement under United States law between 1921 and 1941. World War II (1939–1945) again led to passport requirements under the Travel Control Act of 1918. A 1978 amendment to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 made it illegal to enter or depart the United States without an issued passport even in peacetime.Haig v. Agee, 453 U.S. 280 (1981). § 707(b) of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1979 (), amended § 215 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 making it unlawful to enter or depart the United States without a passport even in peacetime. Note that the amendment does permit the President to make exceptions; historically, these exceptions have been used to permit travel to certain countries (particularly Canada) without a passport. As of August 10, 2016, tourism sites still discuss which alternative documents are acceptable, and which ceased to be sufficient in 2007 or 2008.

Restrictions