# Prigg v. Pennsylvania

> Supreme Court of the United States · March 18, 1842 · 41 U.S. 539

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9883022

## Case

- **Full name:** Edward Prigg, Plaintiff in Error, v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Defendant in Error
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** March 18, 1842
- **Citations:** 41 U.S. 539; 16 Pet. 539; 10 L. Ed. 1060; 1842 U.S. LEXIS 387
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Baldwin
- **Judges:** Story
- **Cited by:** 247 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9883022

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- stating that because the Constitution’s Fugitive Slave Clause “contains a positive and unqualified recognition of the right of the owner in the slave . . . . then all the incidents to that right attach also”
- concluding that state courts could not “be compelled to enforce” the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act
- affirming the supremacy of the Act and striking down as unconstitutional a Pennsylvania law “purport[ing] to punish as a public offence against the state” the kidnapping and rendition of enslaved fugitives

## Opinion text

Mr. Justice Baldwin,
Concurred with the Court in reversing the judgment of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, on the ground that the act of the legislature was unconstitutional; inasmuch as the slavery of the person removed was admitted, the removal could not be kidnapping. . But he dissented from the principles laid down by the Court as the grounds of their opinion.

---

Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9883022. Public record. Not legal advice.