The
Slaughter-House Cases, , was the first
United States Supreme Court interpretation of the recently enacted
Fourteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. It was a pivotal case in early
civil rights law, reading the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the "
privileges or immunities" conferred by virtue of Federal, United States citizenship, to all individuals of all states within it; but not to protect the various privileges or immunities incident to citizenship of a state. However, Federal rights of citizenship were at that time few (such as the right to travel between states and to use navigable rivers); the 14th Amendment did not protect the far broader range of rights covered by state citizenship. In effect, the 14th Amendment was interpreted to convey limited protection pertinent to a small minority of rights.