Opinion ID: 1209439
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: purpose of the privileges and immunities clause

Text: The privileges and immunities clause of section 2, article IV of the United States Constitution provides: The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. [3] The primary purpose of this clause is to prevent states from enacting measures which discriminate against non-residents for reasons of economic protectionism. Supreme Court of New Hampshire v. Piper, ___ U.S. ___, ___ n. 18, 105 S.Ct. 1272, 1279 n. 18, 84 L.Ed.2d 205 (1985). Historically, it was meant to: [h]elp fuse into one Nation a collection of independent, sovereign States. It was designed to insure to a citizen of State A who ventures into State B the same privileges which the citizens of State B enjoy. For protection of such equality the citizen of State A was not to be restricted to the uncertain remedies afforded by diplomatic processes and official retaliation. Indeed, without some provision of the kind removing from the citizens of each State the disabilities of alienage in the other States, and giving them equality of privilege with citizens of those States, the Republic would have constituted little more than a league of States; it would not have constituted the Union which now exists. In line with this underlying purpose, it was long ago decided that one of the privileges which the clause guarantees to citizens of State A is that of doing business in State B on terms of substantial equality with the citizens of that State. Toomer v. Witsell, 334 U.S. 385, 395-96, 68 S.Ct. 1156, 1161-62, 92 L.Ed. 1460, 1471 (1948) (footnote omitted, citations omitted). In brief, the clause was meant to prevent discrimination against non-residents, to further the concept of federalism, and to create a national economic unit. Sheley v. Alaska Bar Association, 620 P.2d 640, 642 (Alaska 1980) (citations omitted).