Due Process Part 1

A One-Vote Oddity

One Vote Denied U.S. Citizens of their Right to Due Process for Fifty-two Years. (Part 1)

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

It is called Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution and it was ratified in 1868. Sometimes called the “due process” clause, it was designed primarily to protect former slaves from the injustice of discrimination. Three years later, its chief author, Congressman John A. Bingham of Ohio, wrote that while protection of blacks was its initial impetus and primary focus, it was intended to protect all U.S. citizens.

Its extended application was first put to the test in 1873. A law in New Orleans had been passed by the carpetbag Louisiana legislature that gave a monopoly to one company on meat production. The law effectively put 1,000 New Orleans butchers out of work. The butchers alleged that their right to “due process” had been violated. The cases associated with this issue came to be known as The Slaughterhouse Cases of 1873.

When the case made its way to the Supreme Court, many of the justices were caught off guard. Seemingly, they had never considered the ramifications beyond the protection of recently freed slaves from southern whites. By a vote of 5-4, they sided with the state of Louisiana and denied the butchers petition. There was dissent of course. Justice Joseph P. Bradley concluded,

“It is futile to argue that none but the persons of the African race are intended to be benefited by this Amendment. They may have been the primary cause of the Amendment, but its language is general, embracing all citizens, and I think it was purposely so expressed.”

(Continued page 98)