Constitutional Law Treatise Table of Contents
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Constitutional Law Outline
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Introduction
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The Preamble
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Article I Legislative Branch
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Art. I, Section 1 Legislative Vesting Clause
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Art. I, Section 2 House of Representatives
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Art. I, Section 3 Senate
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Art. I, Section 4 Congress
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Art. I, Section 5 Proceedings
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Art. I, Section 6 Rights and Disabilities
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Art. I, Section 7 Legislation
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Art. I, Section 8 Enumerated Powers
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Art. I, Section 9 Powers Denied Congress
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Art. I, Section 10 Powers Denied States
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Article II Executive Branch
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Art. II, Section 1 Function and Selection
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Art. II, Section 2 Powers
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Art. II, Section 3 Duties
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Art. II, Section 4 Impeachment
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Article III Judicial Branch
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Art. III, Section 1 Vesting Clause
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Art. III, Section 2 Justiciability
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Art. III, Section 3 Treason
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Article IV Relationships Between the States
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Art. IV, Section 1 Full Faith and Credit Clause
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Art. IV, Section 2 Interstate Comity
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Art. IV, Section 3 New States and Federal Property
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Art. IV, Section 4 Republican Form of Government
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Article V Amending the Constitution
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Article VI Supreme Law
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Article VII Ratification
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First Amendment Fundamental Freedoms
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Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms
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Third Amendment Quartering Soldiers
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Fourth Amendment Searches and Seizures
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Fifth Amendment Rights of Persons
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Sixth Amendment Rights in Criminal Prosecutions
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Seventh Amendment Civil Trial Rights
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Eighth Amendment Cruel and Unusual Punishment
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Ninth Amendment Unenumerated Rights
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Tenth Amendment Rights Reserved to the States and the People
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Eleventh Amendment Suits Against States
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Twelfth Amendment Election of President
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Thirteenth Amendment Abolition of Slavery
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Thirteenth Amend., Section 1 Prohibition on Slavery and Involuntary Servitude
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Thirteenth Amend., Section 2 Enforcement
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Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights
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Fourteenth Amend., Section 1 Rights
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Fourteenth Amend., Section 2 Apportionment of Representation
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Fourteenth Amend., Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office
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Fourteenth Amend., Section 4 Public Debt
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Fourteenth Amend., Section 5 Enforcement
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Fifteenth Amendment Right of Citizens to Vote
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Fifteenth Amend., Section 1 Right to Vote
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Fifteenth Amend., Section 2 Enforcement
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Sixteenth Amendment Income Tax
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Seventeenth Amendment Popular Election of Senators
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Eighteenth Amendment Prohibition of Liquor
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Eighteenth Amend., Section 1 Prohibition
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Eighteenth Amend., Section 2 Enforcement of Prohibition
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Eighteenth Amend., Section 3 Ratification Deadline
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Nineteenth Amendment Women's Suffrage
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Twentieth Amendment Presidential Term and Succession
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Twentieth Amend., Section 1 Terms
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Twentieth Amend., Section 2 Meetings of Congress
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Twentieth Amend., Section 3 Succession
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Twentieth Amend., Section 4 Congress and Presidential Succession
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Twentieth Amend., Section 5 Effective Date
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Twentieth Amend., Section 6 Ratification
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Twenty-First Amendment Repeal of Prohibition
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Twenty-First Amend., Section 1 Repeal of Eighteenth Amendment
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Twenty-First Amend., Section 2 Importation, Transportation, and Sale of Liquor
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Twenty-First Amend., Section 3 Ratification Deadline
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Twenty-Second Amendment Presidential Term Limits
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Twenty-Second Amend., Section 1 Limit
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Twenty-Second Amend., Section 2 Ratification Deadline
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Twenty-Third Amendment District of Columbia Electors
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Twenty-Third Amend., Section 1 Electors
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Twenty-Third Amend., Section 2 Enforcement
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Twenty-Fourth Amendment Abolition of Poll Tax
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Twenty-Fourth Amend., Section 1 Poll Tax
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Twenty-Fourth Amend., Section 2 Enforcement
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Twenty-Fifth Amendment Presidential Vacancy
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Twenty-Fifth Amend., Section 1 Presidential Vacancy
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Twenty-Fifth Amend., Section 2 Vice President Vacancy
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Twenty-Fifth Amend., Section 3 Declaration by President
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Twenty-Fifth Amend., Section 4 Declaration by Vice President and Others
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Twenty-Sixth Amendment Reduction of Voting Age
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Twenty-Sixth Amend., Section 1 Eighteen Years of Age
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Twenty-Sixth Amend., Section 2 Enforcement
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Twenty-Seventh Amendment Congressional Compensation
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Article IV Relationships Between the States
Section 2 Interstate Comity
Clause 3 Slavery
Clause Text
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No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.
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Fugitive Slave Clause
This Clause, effectively nullified by the Thirteenth Amendment's abolition of slavery,[1] contemplated the existence of a right on the part of a slaveholder to reclaim an enslaved person who had escaped to another state.[2] Following the debate on the constitutional provision requiring states to return felons who had fled from one state to another,[3] Pierce Butler and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina moved "to require fugitive slaves and servants to be delivered up like criminals."[4] Although James Wilson and Roger Sherman objected that this "would oblige the executive of the State to [seize fugitive slaves], at the public expense," the provision was approved by the Convention unanimously without further debate.[5]
Congress had the power to enact legislation enforcing the Clause,[6] which it first did in 1793.[7] Under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fugitive Slave Clause, the owner of an enslaved person had the same right to seize and repossess him in another state as the local laws of his own state granted to him, and state laws that penalized such a seizure were unconstitutional.[8] Moreover, states had no concurrent power to legislate on the subject.[9] However, a state statute providing a penalty for harboring an escaped slave was held not to conflict with the Clause because it did not affect the right or remedy of the slaveholder, but rather a rule of conduct for its own citizens in the exercise of states' police power.[10]
- ↑ Thirteenth Amendment Abolition of Slavery.
- ↑ See 3 Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States §§ 1804-1805 (1833).
- ↑ Art. IV, Sec. 2, Clause 2 Interstate Extradition.
- ↑ 2 Max Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, at 443 (Max Farrand, ed. 1911).
- ↑ Id. at 446. Although the Articles of Confederation lacked an analogous provision, see 3 Story's Commentaries, supra note here, at § 1805, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, even as it abolished slavery in the Territory, provided for the return of fugitive slaves who escaped there. See Ordinance of 1787 art. VI ("Provided, always, That any person escaping into the [territory], from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.").
- ↑ Jones v. Van Zandt, 46 U.S. (5 How.) 215, 229 (1847).
- ↑ 1 Stat. 302 (1793). The enforcement provisions of Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 were strengthened as part of the Compromise of 1850. See 9 Stat. 462 (1850).
- ↑ Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 41 U.S. (16 Pet.) 539, 612 (1842); Ableman v. Booth, 62 U.S. (21 How.) 506 (1859).
- ↑ Prigg, 41 U.S. at 625.
- ↑ Moore v. Illinois, 55 U.S. (14 How.) 13, 17 (1853).