the butchers in the slaughterhouse cases lived in new orleans.
where did the butchers in the slaughterhouse cases live?
new orleans
in the slaughterhouse cases carpenter represented the crescent city livestock landing and slaughterhouse company, which had been granted a monopoly on all slaughterhouse business in new orleans by the carpetbag state legislature of louisiana in 1869. butchers and cattle dealers thrown out of work by the law obtained an injunction from a district court, claiming they had been denied equal protection under the fourteenth amendment and deprived of property under the due process clause. making a plea for states' rights, carpenter contended that the amendment had been intended solely to elevate african americans and had no bearing on economic statutes passed by a state. he also warned of too many powers being centralized in the federal government. the court concurred in carpenter's narrowing of the scope of the fourteenth amendment.
matthew h. carpenter
thus, in black's view, the "slaughterhouse cases" should not impede incorporation of the bill of rights against the states, via the privileges or immunities clause. some scholars go even further, and argue that the "slaughterhouse cases" affirmatively supported incorporation of the bill of rights against the states. in dicta, justice miller's opinion in "slaughterhouse" went so far as to acknowledge that the "right to peaceably assemble and petition for redress of grievances ... are rights of the citizen guaranteed by the federal constitution," although in context miller may have only been referring to assemblies for petitioning the federal government.
incorporation of the bill of rights