Prigg

The citation of Prigg is interesting esp. with the discussion some time back on the perils of citing Dred Scott.

Balkinization 2007

Prigg is a somewhat dubious interpretation of "original" meaning.

Balkinization 2007

While your cite to Prigg is clever, there isn't any real case authority to back it up.

Balkinization 2007

On the constitutional questions which have at various times arisen, -- the citizenship of the colored man, the soundness of the "Prigg" decision, the constitutionality of the old Fugitive Slave Law, the true construction of the slave-surrender clause, -- nothing has been added, either in the way of fact or argument, to the works of Jay, Weld, Alvan

American Eloquence, Volume 2 Studies In American Political History (1896) Various 1899

In the 1842 case Prigg v. Pennsylvania, the Court had held that Congress had the authority to regulate the acts of both states and private actors to enforce the constitutional right of slaveholders to have their slaves returned to them, even though the text of the Fugitive Slave Clause only limited state action, and did not give Congress any legislative power.

David Gans: Rand Paul and Congressional Power to Secure Civil Rights 2010

Prigg, the framers argued, "fix [ed] the interpretation of the Constitution ... as authorizing affirmative legislation in protection of the rights of federal citizenship under federal law ...."

David Gans: Rand Paul and Congressional Power to Secure Civil Rights 2010

The other interesting point is the degree to which particular holdings like Prigg may be cited for propositions which, based on other evidence, we might doubt those at the time had in mind.

Balkinization 2007

A fair reading of Prigg v. Pennsylvania is that when the constitution creates an individual right, Congress has the power to pass legislation enforcing that right, even though that power is not mentioned in Article I, Section 8.

Balkinization 2007

But if the greater includes the less, then this question was embraced in the decision; for, in that case, Prigg had seized the fugitive slave without process, and carried her away without any certificate from magistrate or judge in the State of Pennsylvania.

Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott

His more deliberate opinion is recorded, not only in the case of Prigg, but also in his "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States."

Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott