Image of the inside of the New Orleans Slaughterhouse
The Slaughterhouse Cases of 1869 are a well-known interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Louisiana gave a 25 year monopoly to a slaughterhouse in New Orleans to protect the health of its residents. Other slaughterhouses that had been shut down brought suit on grounds that their property had been taken away from them without due process of law, which is the fair and uncorrupted treatment through the judicial system (exclusively as a citizen's entitlement). The court, along with Justice Samuel F. Miller, voted against these operators. They argued that the Fourteenth Amendment did not state the rights in question, specifically. It ruled that a citizen's “privileges and immunities” did not include many rights given by states, and states were allowed to give business monopolies to some citizens, but not those that were not following the Constitution.
The Civil Rights Cases of 1883 also interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment. The decisions the court made hurt Congress’ aim to protect civil rights. The ruling was that Congress did not have the power to end racial discrimination under private companies. The ruling closed the opportunity to end racial discrimination and segregation in public facilities. After the failure of the Civil Rights Act (which proposed to end inequality based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin), Congress did not introduce another civil right law for another 80 years.