Grant County Fire Protection District No. 5 v. City of Moses Lake

(dissenting) — Although I agree with the majority that the Washington Constitution’s privileges and immunities section, article I, section 12, has a meaning separate and distinct from the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, I do not agree that the unique right of a property owner to petition for annexation of his property into a municipality is either a “privilege” or “immunity” within the scope of the clause.

At the outset I note that the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution references privileges and immunities and equal…