makes void all State legislation, and State action of every kind, which impairs the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States; or which injures them in life, liberty, or property without due process of law; or which denies to any of them the equal protection of the laws. It not only does this, but, in order that the national will, thus declared, may not be mere brutum fulmen, the last section of the Amendment invests Congress with power to enforce it by appropriate legislation; to adopt appropriate legislation for correcting the effects of such prohibited State laws and State acts, and thus to render them effectually null, void, and innocuous."
It seems indisputable to an impartial and clearsighted mind, that this Amendment was not only a muniment of the title of these citizens to the same privileges and immunities as those possessed by the citizens of the several States, but that under article four, section two, the Constitution, which provides that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States," also conferred absolute authority upon the judicial department of the government, independently of the action of Congress, to enforce the provisions of this Amendment by nullifying any action of the individuals of the States which encroach upon or violate its provisions, under and by virtue of the decisions of State courts, based not only upon inimical State statutes, but upon the common law, or customs prevailing in such States, having therein the force of law.[1]
It also seems undeniable, that the judgment of a State court, establishing rights arising from the contracts of its citizens professedly founded upon a treaty, alliance, or confederation secretly made by that State with a foreign power, or upon a State grant of letters of marque and reprisal, or for the coinage of money, or upon an ex-post-facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, would not be more unconstitutional and void (even in the absence of congressional legislation), by virtue of constitutional provisions inhibiting State action respecting the exclusive powers of the general government, than would be the enforce-
- ↑ Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 310.
