Privileges and Immunities in Acts 22

"And as they cried out, and threw off their garments, and cast dust into the air, the chief captain commanded him be brought into the castle, bidding that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know for what cause they so shouted against him. And when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned? And when the centurion heard it, he went to the chief captain and told him, saying, What art thou about to do? for this man is a Roman. And the chief captain came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? And he said, Yea. And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this citizenship. And Paul said, But I am a Roman born. They then that were about to examine him straightway departed from him: and the chief captain also was afraid when he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him" (Acts 22:23-39).

The purpose of a good legal system is to make sure that people can pursue happiness in peace, without being harmed by other people or by government. In regard to not being harmed by government, the most important rule is that government cannot deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. In other words, government cannot execute (or otherwise physically harm), imprison, or fine a person unless that person has been found guilty of a crime in a court of law. According to Kent, the rights of life, liberty, and property are also known as "priveleges and immunities":

The privileges and immunities conceded by the Constitution of the United States to citizens of the several States were to be confined to those which were, in their nature, fundamental, and belonged of right to the citizens of all free Governments. Such are the rights of protection of life and liberty, and to acquire and enjoy property (James Kent, Commentaries on American Law, 1826)

In the present passage, we see that the protections of Roman law only applied to Roman citizens. A non-citizen could be scourged without a trial, but a citizen could not be physically punished unless he were found guilty of a crime in a court of law. "Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried?" Paul asks (22:25). This is why the commander is frightened when he finds out that Paul is a citizen, even though the commander stops short of whipping Paul. A similar incident occurs at Philippi in Acts 16. Paul and Silas are severely beaten and thrown into jail without a trial--something that government is not permitted to do to a Roman citizen. "They have publicly beaten us without trial and jailed us--and we are Roman citizens," Paul complains (16:37). This is why the city officials are alarmed when they find out that Paul and Silas are Roman citizens.

The distinction between citizen and non-citizen in Roman law helps us to understand a critical idea in the US Constitution--the idea of privileges and immunities. In Article IV.2, the Constitution guarantees that the citizens of each state will be able to enjoy all of the legal protections enjoyed by the citizens of the state in which he is travelling or temporarily residing as a non-citizen. These legal protections are of the sort that we see in these passages in Acts: state governments are required to protect the life, liberty, and property of citizens from other states (the "privileges" part) and are prohibited from violating their life, liberty, or property without due process of law (the "immunities" part).

This definition of privileges and immunities becomes especially important when considering the 14th amendment of the US Constitution. Section 1 of this Amendment was added to the Constitution in order to require especially the southern state governments to protect the life, liberty, and property of the newly-freed slaves and to prohibit these state governments from depriving their African-American citizens of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. The concern of the framers of this amendment was that the newly freed slaves would be treated under law just as non-Roman citizens were treated under Roman law. The possibility of a southern government official flogging a black man to get information from him, or to imprison him without trial (as happened or almost happened to Paul) is precisely the kind of thing that this amendment was designed to prevent.

This is of critical importance, because the limits that this amendment places on state governments has been changed by the Supreme Court into a prohibition against limiting personal liberties (as defined by the Supreme Court). It is the amendment the Court has used to legalize birth control, abortion, homosexual sex, flag burning, stores that rent or sell XXX-rated movies, etc. If Americans were to understand this amendment properly and insist that federal judges make rulings based on the meaning of this amendment as it was understood by those who ratified it, then the decision as to whether or not to permit these things would be left up to the states and local communities who have to live with the consequences of these decisions.