New! H2O now has access to new and up-to-date cases via CourtListener and the Caselaw Access Project. Click here for more info.

Main Content

Casebook Read Credits
Constitutional Law
Section 4 . 2 . 2
2.5 hours

Race: Less

Lawrence Lessig

It is important to read Slaughterhouse carefully. The case is known for destroying the possibility that any fundamental rights, or Bill of Rights rights, would be recognized as "incorporated." But does the opinion actually do that? Does it resolve the question as to the 2d Amendment? Or first? And what does it mean by "federal law" as being within the Privileges or Immunities of the 14th Amendment? Does the opinion do anything more than negate the possibility of unenumerated rights being recognized as federal Privileges or Immunities? 

To the extent Miller is changing the original understanding, is there a fidelity to role justification? 

The two Cruikshank opinions are very important to the understanding this casebook (and the book) are trying to teach. Spend some time understanding the conceptual space he is describing. Which rights are created by the Constitution, and which rights are simply recognized? How does that difference matter? What would it say about the scope of Congress's 13th and 15th Amendment powers? 

Then think about why Chief Justice Waite's opinion is so obtuse and obscure. Is there a purpose served by obscurity?  -LL

This book, and all H2O books, are Creative Commons licensed for sharing and re-use with the exception of certain excerpts. Any excerpts from the Restatements of the Law, Principles of the Law, and the Model Penal Code are copyright by The American Law Institute. Excerpts are reproduced with permission, not as part of a Creative Commons license.