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42 USC Sec. 1985
01/16/96
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TITLE 42 - THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 21 - CIVIL RIGHTS
SUBCHAPTER I - GENERALLY
-HEAD-
Sec. 1985. Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights
-STATUTE-
(1) Preventing officer from performing duties
If two or more persons in any State or Territory
conspire to
prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from
accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of
confidence
under the United States, or from discharging any duties
thereof; or
to induce by like means any officer of the United States to
leave
any State, district, or place, where his duties as an officer
are
required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or
property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of
his
office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or
to
injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or
impede
him in the discharge of his official duties;
(2) Obstructing justice; intimidating party, witness, or
juror
If two or more persons in any State or Territory
conspire to
deter, by force, intimidation, or threat, any party or
witness in
any court of the United States from attending such court, or
from
testifying to any matter pending therein, freely, fully, and
truthfully, or to injure such party or witness in his person
or
property on account of his having so attended or testified,
or to
influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment of any
grand or
petit juror in any such court, or to injure such juror in his
person or property on account of any verdict, presentment, or
indictment lawfully assented to by him, or of his being or
having
been such juror; or if two or more persons conspire for the
purpose
of impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating, in any
manner,
the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with
intent to
deny to any citizen the equal protection of the laws, or to
injure
him or his property for lawfully enforcing, or attempting to
enforce, the right of any person, or class of persons, to the
equal
protection of the laws;
(3) Depriving persons of rights or privileges
If two or more persons in any State or Territory
conspire or go
in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for
the
purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any
person or
class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of
equal
privileges and immunities under the laws; or for the purpose
of
preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any
State or
Territory from giving or securing to all persons within such
State
or Territory the equal protection of the laws; or if two or
more
persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or
threat, any
citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his
support
or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the
election
of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President
or
Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United
States; or
to injure any citizen in person or property on account of
such
support or advocacy; in any case of conspiracy set forth in
this
section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause
to be
done, any act in furtherance of the object of such
conspiracy,
whereby another is injured in his person or property, or
deprived
of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen
of the
United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an
action
for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or
deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators.
-SOURCE-
(R.S. Sec. 1980.)
-COD-
CODIFICATION
R.S. Sec. 1980 derived from acts July 31, 1861,
ch. 33, 12 Stat.
284; Apr. 20, 1871, ch. 22, Sec. 2, 17 Stat. 13.
Section was formerly classified to section 47 of
Title 8, Aliens
and Nationality.
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SECTION REFERRED TO IN OTHER SECTIONS
This section is referred to in sections 1986,
1988 of this title;
title 28 section 1343.