Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans
The Butchers’ Benevolent Association, led by founding president Paul Esteben, was a group of New Orleans butchers who sued Louisiana and the Crescent City Livestock Landing and Slaughterhouse Company over a Louisiana statute granting the company a monopoly to slaughter all animals in New Orleans.
Justice Samuel Miller
Samuel Miller (April 5, 1816 – October 13, 1890) was the Supreme Court justice (1862 – 1890) who wrote the majority opinion in Slaughterhouse. He was appointed by Abraham Lincoln and supported the abolition of slavery so much that before the War, he moved from his home state of Kentucky to Iowa, a free state.
Justice Stephen Field
Stephen Field (November 4, 1816 – April 9, 1899) was a Supreme Court justice (1863 – 1897) who wrote a dissent in Slaughterhouse arguing for a much broader reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. Field’s opinion is much closer to modern legal interpretations of the amendment.