The Privileges or Immunities Clause is Amendment XIV, Section 1, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution. Along with the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment, this clause became part of the Constitution on July 9, 1868.

Text of the clause The clause states:

Drafting and adoption

The primary author of the Privileges or Immunities Clause was Congressman John Bingham of Ohio. The common historical view is that Bingham's primary inspiration, at least for his initial prototype of this Clause, was the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article Four of the United States Constitution, which provided that "The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States".

On February 3, 1866, the Joint Committee on Reconstruction (also known as the "Joint Committee of Fifteen") voted in favor of a draft constitutional amendment proposed by Bingham. The draft constitutional amendment provided:

This language closely tracked the existing language in the Privileges and Immunities Clause. On February 28, 1866, Bingham expressed his opinion that this draft language would give Congress power to "secure to the citizens of each State all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States in the several States", and he added that "[t]he proposition pending before the House is simply a proposition to arm the Congress…with the power to enforce the bill of rights as it stands in the constitution today. It hath that extent—no more…If the State laws do not interfere, those immunities follow under the Constitution".Cong. Globe, 39th Cong., 1st Sess., 1088, 1095 (1866).

According to Bingham, Congress lacked the power to enforce the Privileges and Immunities Clause under the original, unamended U.S. Constitution, and so he wanted the privileges and immunities of United States citizens to become a part of the Fourteenth Amendment. On May 14, 1868 he stated that the aim of the Privileges or Immunities Clause is that the constitution of a U.S. state "never should be so construed, and never should be so enforced as to deprive any citizen of the United States of the rights and privileges of a citizen of the United States within the limits of that State. The fourteenth article of the amendments of the Constitution secures this power to the Congress of the United States." As he stated on January 30, 1871 in the House Report No. 22 from the House Judiciary Committee, which he led, the Privileges or Immunities Clause was deemed necessary for the enforcement of the Privileges or Immunities Clause as an express limitation upon the powers of the States. The rights and privileges of a citizen of the United States were defined by Congress in the Civil Rights Act of 1866:

Subsequently, on April 28, 1866, the Joint Committee of Fifteen voted in favor of a second draft proposed by Congressman Bingham, which would ultimately be adopted into the Constitution. The Joint Committee no longer tracked the existing language in Article Four as the Committee had previously done. On May 10, 1866, in the closing debate on the House floor, Bingham nevertheless quoted Article IV:

The Fourteenth Amendment was approved by the House later that day. Michigan Senator Jacob M. Howard introduced the amendment in the Senate, and gave a speech in which he discussed the meaning of this clause.Senator Jacob Howard, Speech Introducing the Fourteenth Amendment, Speech Delivered in the U.S. Senate, May 23, 1866" via Yale University. Retrieved 2013-05-17. Howard noted that the U.S. Supreme Court had never squarely addressed the meaning of the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article IV, which therefore made the effect of the new Privileges or Immunities Clause somewhat uncertain.On May 23, 1866. Howard said: "It would be a curious question to solve what are the privileges and immunities of citizens of each of the States in the several States. . . . I am not aware that the Supreme Court have ever undertaken to define either the nature or extent of the privileges and immunities thus guarantied. . . . But we may gather some intimation of what probably will be the opinion of the judiciary by referring to . . . Corfield vs. Coryell . . . , 4 Washington's Circuit Court Reports, page 380." This comment by Howard was quoted by Justice Hugo Black in Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46 (1947).

Congress gave final approval to the Privileges or Immunities Clause when the House proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the states for ratification on June 13, 1866. There was much discussion of this proposed clause as the amendment awaited ratification by the states. For example, according to a November 15, 1866 pseudonymous letter published in the New York Times:Letter from "Madison", New York Times (November 15, 1866). This was the second of several parts by "Madison", and in the first part that author took a broad view of the rights already guaranteed by the Privileges and Immunities Clause in Article IV — rights with which Madison said "states cannot constitutionally interfere" according to his understanding of the Privileges and Immunities Clause. "Madison", New York Times (November 10, 1866). Madison also cited the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford as persuasive authority regarding the inability of states to make people citizens of the United States. Id.

"[N]o State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." This is intended for the enforcement of the Second Section of the Fourth Article of the Constitution, which declares that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of the citizens in the several States.

We have seen, in the first number, what privileges and immunities were intended. The same authorities have held that the negro of African descent was not a citizen within the meaning of the term, as used in this and other articles of the Constitution; that he was not one of the "peoples" who ordained that sacred charter; that as a slave he was only three-fifth of a "number," but as a free man he was a whole number to be counted for representation, and a whole "person," who might be held to involuntary "service," and reclaimed in any State to which he might escape. The free colored man could have no protection in any slave State during the existence of the relation of master and slave.

He could not change his residence, nor travel at pleasure; he could neither buy, sell nor hold property; he was liable to be enslaved under various circumstances, and such laws were often enforced. Those who contend for "the Constitution as it is and the Union as it was," affect to acknowledge the freedom of the colored people; but, by a series of unfriendly legislation, many of the states construe that freedom to mean no acknowledgment of citizenship and the enjoyment of very few rights. Without enumerating the disgraceful particulars of legislation, it must be apparent to every candid mind, that the Constitution must be so amended as to place restrictions upon the States, or else the Negro must be virtually reenslaved.

The clause, together with the rest of the Fourteenth Amendment, became part of the Constitution in July 1868.

Interpretation after adoption Many judges and scholars have interpreted this clause, and the Slaughter-House Cases decided in 1873 have thus far been the most influential.

Pre-Slaughter-House On January 30, 1871, the House Judiciary Committee, led by John Bingham, released a House Report No. 22, which was authored by Bingham himself, interpreting the Fourteenth's privileges or immunities this way (Emphasis added):Curtis, Michael Kent. No State Shall Abridge, the 14th Amendment and the Bill of Rights, p. 168 (Duke Univ. Press 1986).

The clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," does not, in the opinion of the committee, refer to privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States other than those privileges and immunities embraced in the original text of the Constitution, article four, section two. The Fourteenth Amendment, it is believed, did not add to the privileges or immunities before mentioned, but was deemed necessary for the enforcement as an express limitation upon the powers of the States. It had been judicially determined that the first Eight Amendments of the Constitution were not limitations on the power of the States, and it was apprehended that the same might be held of the provision of the second section, fourth article.

Shortly thereafter, on March 31, 1871, Bingham elaborated:

I hope the gentleman now knows why I changed the form of the amendment of February, 1866. Mr. Speaker, that the scope and meaning of the limitations imposed by the first section, fourteenth amendment of the Constitution may be more fully understood, permit me to say that the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, as contradistinguished from citizens of a State, are chiefly defined in the first eight amendments to the Constitution of the United States.Curtis, Michael Kent. "Bill of Rights as a Limitation on State Authority: A Reply to Professor Berger", 16 Wake Forest L. Rev. 45 (1980). Bingham's full speech is here in the Congressional Globe.

One of the earliest judicial interpretations of the Privileges or Immunities Clause was Garnes v. McCann, Ohio Sup. Ct., in 1871. In it Judge John Day interpreted the clause to protect enumerated constitutional rights such as those listed in the Bill of Rights, but not unenumerated common-law civil rights. He wrote:

This [case] involves the equity as to what privileges or immunities are embraced in the inhibition of this clause. We are not aware that this has been as yet judicially settled. The language of the clause, however, taken in connection with other provisions of the amendment, and of the constitution of which it forms a part, affords strong reasons for believing that it includes only such privileges or immunities as are derived from, or recognized by, the constitution of the United States. A broader interpretation opens into a field of conjecture limitless as the range of speculative theories, and might work such limitations of the power of the States to manage and regulate their local institutions and affairs as were never contemplated by the amendment.

The Slaughter-House Cases The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is unique among constitutional provisions in that some scholars believe it was substantially read out of the Constitution in a 5–4 decision of the Supreme Court in the Slaughter-House Cases of 1873.In Re Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. 36 (1872) The Clause has remained virtually dormant since, but in 2010 this clause was the basis for the fifth and deciding vote in the case of McDonald v. Chicago, regarding application of the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution to the states.

In the Slaughter-House Cases the court recognized two types of citizenship. The rights citizens have by being citizens of the United States are covered under the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment, while the rights citizens have by being citizens of a state fall under the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article Four.

The Supreme Court did not prevent application of the Bill of Rights to the states via the Privileges or Immunities Clause in Slaughter-House, but rather addressed whether a state monopoly statute violated the natural right of a person to do business and engage in his trade or vocation. In other words, no provision of the Bill of Rights was at issue in that case, nor was any other right that followed under the U.S. Constitution.