What is the original meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?
There have been many great books on this question, but I have never been totally satisfied with their answers. Co-blogger Steve Sachs and I, along with Professor Jud Campbell, have a new article out in the Stanford Law Review on this question: General Law and the Fourteenth Amendment. We argue that the fundamental rights protected by the Amendment have to be understood in light of the unwritten common law of the time, especially the fact that it was enacted in the era of Swift v. Tyson and before Erie R.R. v. Tompkins.
Here is the introduction:
