United States v. Harris
Facts
The defendants were indicted under Revised Statutes section 5519 for conspiring to deprive certain citizens of the United States and of Tennessee of the equal protection accorded them by Tennessee law. The indictment, as described by the Court, contained no allegation that Tennessee had passed or enforced any law forbidden by the Fourteenth Amendment, or that any state department had denied protected rights. The charge was directed solely at the conduct of private persons. The defendants demurred, challenging Congress's power to enact the statute on which the indictment rested.
Issue
Did Congress have constitutional authority to enact Revised Statutes section 5519, which punished private conspiracies to deprive persons of the equal protection of the laws? As a threshold matter, did the Supreme Court have jurisdiction despite the certificate not expressly stating that it was made on request of a party or counsel?
Rule
Federal legislation must be authorized by some express constitutional grant or by a power properly incident and necessary to execute an express grant. The Fourteenth Amendment restrains State action and authorizes Congress to enforce that restraint, but it does not authorize Congress to punish purely private conduct unconnected to state action. The Thirteenth Amendment authorizes legislation against slavery and involuntary servitude, but it does not support a statute whose terms extend far beyond that subject; courts may not save such a statute by limiting it to constitutionally reachable cases when Congress has legislated more broadly.
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