Slaughterhouse Cases

On 8 March 1869, the state of Louisiana created a 25-year monopoly on livestock slaughtering in the area of New Orleans, including three parishes of the state. The slaughterhouse was to be established down-river from New Orleans, and butchers who wished to slaughter animals would be required to rent space for that purpose at the facility built by the Crescent City Live Stock Landing and Slaughter House Company. The purpose of the law was to prevent butchers and others from landing stock throughout the city of New Orleans, driving the animals through the streets, and slaughtering them on various premises scattered throughout residential neighborhoods. The movement of the stock, holding them in pens through the city, slaughtering them and leaving animal waste and blood in different districts of the city constituted a major threat to public health and safety.

By confining all slaughtering operations to one locale--distant, and down-river from the city--the stench and waste from the slaughterhouse would not pollute the city. However, butchers complained about being forced by the state to pay rent to the established monopoly company for the space to slaughter their own animals. The state, they claimed, had interfered with their business.

In arguing against the state monopoly, the attorneys for the butchers' associations brought a new line of argument that would have far-reaching implications. While there were traditional common-law arguments to be made against a state monopoly, the attorneys added a new line of thinking by pointing out that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution prohibited servitude and the taking of rights without due process of law. Even though these amendments had been introduced to protect the former slaves, the attorneys argued, the Constitution could not specifically offer special protections to former slaves without also offering those protections to all citizens.