The Privileges and Immunities of Non-Citizens

However paradoxically, in some practically important contexts, non-citizens of all sorts can rightly claim what amount to privileges and immunities of citizens. This follows from a careful and entirely plausible understanding of the inherently relational, inescapably social, and essentially reciprocal nature of at least some typical privileges and immunities. This Article contends that the relationship between constitutional privileges and immunities and citizenship is more nuanced, and much more interesting, than usually recognized. Crucially, allowing some non-citizens to invoke the privileges and immunities of citizens often makes sense.

The intuitive sense that non-citizens cannot logically claim the privileges or immunities of citizens rests on a misunderstanding of the nature of rights and rights-holders. Practice and logic combine to vindicate what would seem to be a paradoxical claim. In some practically important contexts, non-citizens of all sorts can rightly claim what amounts to privileges and immunities of citizens.