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Article IV Section 2
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The first provision of Article IV, Section 2, is a cornerstone of a common standard for equal protection under the law for all American citizens. It gives to citizens of every state all the legal protections enjoyed by citizens of other states if they should be residing in or traveling through one of those other states. This means, for example, that New Jersey cannot give citizens of that state one set of rights while at the same time denying a citizen of New York or working in New Jersey any of those same rights. Therefore New Jersey cannot impose higher taxes on New Yorkers working in New Jersey than it imposes on its own residents.
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The other side of the ''privileges and immunity'' clause is that which requires states to respect the laws of other states aimed at punishing persons charged with ''Treason, Felony, or other Crime'' by extradicting (delivering up) such persons to the state having jurisdiction over the crime.
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The final part of Article IV, Section2, may well be the most reprehensible provision in the original U.S. Constitution. It requires that the governments and citizens of every state in the union deliver up all persons ''held in Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another.'' Although nowhere mentioned, those persons ''held to Service or Labour'' were slaves, and by requiring that citizens and states where slavery was not permitted cooperate with citizens and governments in slave owning states in the return of their slaves, it made all Americans actively complicit in protecting the institution of slavery. This provision was rendered null and void by the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery.
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