Article IV · Section 2 of 4
Fair treatment and returning people
Article IV: The states
The one-line version
States must treat visitors fairly and return people charged with crimes. Includes the Fugitive Slave Clause.
Section 2 in plain English
A state must give citizens of other states the same basic rights it gives its own citizens.
If a person charged with a crime flees to another state, that state must send them back. The governor of the state where the crime happened makes the request. This is called extradition.
The original text also required that a person "held to Service or Labour" who escaped to another state be returned. This is the Fugitive Slave Clause. It meant enslaved people who escaped to a free state had to be sent back to the people who enslaved them.
Note: The Thirteenth Amendment (1865) ended slavery. Since then, the Fugitive Slave Clause has had no effect.
Original text, 1788
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.
No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.