[Cite as Adamson v. California, 332 U.S. 46, 78, 99, 100, 105, 109 n.3, 119, 124 (1947). NOTE: This decision concerns compelled testimony and whether the protections of the Fifth Amendment was made enforceable by the Fourteenth Amendment against state infringements. Dissenting from the Court's decision that it was not, Justice Black argued that all the bill of rights were made enforceable by the Fourteenth Amendment. Listing Supreme Court decisions withholding amendments Five, Six, Seven, and Eight from enforceability against states, Justice Black listed Presser (116 U.S. 252) and quoted the Second Amendment's clause "'right of the people to keep and bear arms...,'"(P. 78 This page) In an Appendix, Justice Black quoted at length from the debates surrounding the Fourteenth Amendment and other acts of that era. An emphasis on arms or the right to arms appears in this Appendix five times (P. 99, 100, 105, 109 n.3, 119). Justice Murphy's dissent also advocated "that the specific guarantees of the Bill of Rights should be carried over intact into the first Section of the Fourteenth Amendment." (P. 124)]
[Adamson v. California continued
Return to pages 46-58 (Majority opinion).
Return to pages 59-67 (Frankfurter, concurrence).
Return to pages 68-77 (Black, dissent).
Currently at page 78 (Black, dissent cont.).
Proceed to pages 79-91 (Black, dissent cont.).
Proceed to pages 92-122 (Black, Appendix).
Proceed to pages 123-125 (Murphy, dissent).]
[paragraph continued from previous page] natural justice formula the Court today embraces. The Court did not meet the question of whether the safeguards of the Bill of Rights were protected against state invasion by the Fourteenth Amendment. And it specifically did not say as the Court now does, that particular provisions of the Bill of Rights could be breached by states in part, but not breached in other respects, according to this Court's notions of "civilized standards," "canons of decency," and "fundamental justice."
Later, but prior to the Twining case, this Court decided that the following were not "privileges or immunities" of national citizenship, so as to make them immune against state invasion: the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, In re Kemmler, 136 U.S. 436; the Seventh Amendment's guarantee of a jury trial in civil cases, Walker v. Sauvinet, 92 U.S. 90; the Second Amendment's "right of the people to keep and bear arms...," Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252; the Fifth and Sixth Amendments' requirements for indictment in capital or other infamous crimes, and for trial by jury in criminal prosecutions, Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581. While it can be argued that these cases implied that no one of the provisions of the Bill of Rights was made applicable to the states as attributes of national citizenship, no one of them expressly so decided. In fact, the Court in Maxwell v. Dow, supra, at 597-598, concluded no more than that "the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States do not necessarily include all the rights protected by the first eight amendments to the Federal Constitution against the powers of the Federal government." Cf. Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 329.
After the Slaughter-House decision, the Court also said that states could, despite the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, take private property without just compensation, Davidson v. New Orleans, 96 U.S. 97, 105; [paragraph continues next page]
[Return to pages 46-58 (Majority opinion).
Return to pages 59-67 (Frankfurter, concurrence).
Return to pages 68-77 (Black, dissent).
Currently at page 78 (Black, dissent cont.).
Proceed to pages 79-91 (Black, dissent cont.).
Proceed to pages 92-122 (Black, Appendix).
Proceed to pages 123-125 (Murphy, dissent).]