Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 17.djvu/53

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FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 22. 1871.
13
April 20, 1871

Chap. XXII.—An Act to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes.

Any person person under color of any law, &c. of any State, depriving another of any right, &c. secured by the Constitution of the United States, made liable to the party injured. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who, under·color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any person within the jurisdiction of the United States to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution of the United States, shall, any such law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of the State to the contrary notwithstanding, be liable to the party injured in, any action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress; such proceedingProceedings to be in the courts of the United States to be prosecuted in the several district or circuit courts of the United States, with and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, and other remedies provided in like cases in such courts, under the provisions of the act of the ninth of April,1866, ch. 31.
Vol. xiv. p. 27.
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An act to protect all persons in the United States in their civil rights, and to furnish the means of their vindication"; and the other remedial laws of the United States which are in their nature applicable in such cases.

Sec. 2 That if two or more personsPenalty for conspiring by force to put down the government of the United States, &c.; within any State or Territory of the United States shall conspire together to overthrow, or to put down, or to destroy by force the government of the United States, or to levy war against the United States, or to oppose by force the authority of the government of the United States, or by force, intimidation, or threator to hinder the execution of any law of the United States; to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any propertyor to seize any property of the United States; of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, or by force, intimidation, or threat or to prevent any person from holding office, &c. under the United States; to prevent any person from accepting or holding any office or trust or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging the duties thereof, or by force, intimidation, or threator to induce any officer to leave the States, &c.; to induce any officer of the United States to leave any State, district, or place where his duties as such officer might lawfully be performed, or to injureor to injure him in person or property while doing, or to prevent his doing, his duty; him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to injure his person while engaged in the lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duty, or by force, intimidation, or threator to prevent any party or witness from attending court or testifying therein; to deter any party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying in any matter pending in such court fully, freely, and truthfully, or to injureor to injure him for so attending or testifying; any such party or witness in his person or property on account of his having so attended or testified, or by force, intimidation, or threator to influence the conduct of any juror; to influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment, of any juror or grand juror in any court of the United States, or to injure such juror in his person or property on accountor to injure any juror on account of his acts, &c.; of any verdict, presentment, or indictment lawfully assented to by him, or on account of his being or having been such juror, or shall conspire together, or go in disguisePenalty for conspiring or going in disguise upon the public highway, &c. to deprive any person or class of equal rights, &c. under the laws; upon the public highway or upon the premises of another for the purpose, either directly or indirectly, of depriving any person or any class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges or immunities under the laws, or for the purpose of preventing or hinderingor to prevent the State authorities from protecting all their equal rights. the constituted authorities of any State from giving or securing to all persons within such State the equal protection of the laws, or shall conspire together for the purpose of in any manner impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with intent to deny to any citizen of the United States the due and equal protection of the laws, or to injure any person in his person or his property for lawfully enforcing the right of any person or class of persons to the equal protection of the laws, or by force, intimidation, or threatPenalty for conspiring to obstruct, &c. the to prevent any citizen of the United States lawfully entitled to vote from giving his support or advocacy in a lawful