The Slaughter-House Cases, , was the first United States Supreme Court interpretation of the recently enacted Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. It was a pivotal case in early civil rights law, reading the Fourteenth Amendment as protecting the "privileges or immunities" conferred by virtue of Federal, United States citizenship, to all individuals of all states within it; but not to protect the various privileges or immunities incident to citizenship of a state. However, Federal rights of citizenship were at that time few (such as the right to travel between states and to use navigable rivers); the 14th Amendment did not protect the far broader range of rights covered by state citizenship. In effect, the 14th Amendment was interpreted to convey limited protection pertinent to a small minority of rights.