42 U.S.C. § 1985

Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights

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(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.

(R.S. § 1980.)Editorial NotesCodification

R.S. § 1980 derived from acts July 31, 1861, ch. 33, 12 Stat. 284; Apr. 20, 1871, ch. 22, § 2, 17 Stat. 13.

Section was formerly classified to section 47 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 9,734 cases (2,875 in the last 5 years), 1954–2026 · leading case: Ziglar v. Abbasi
Ziglar v. Abbasi (2017) scotus · cites it 6× “§ 1980, 42 U.S.C. § 1985 (3). This statutory cause of action allows damages to persons injured by conspiracies to deprive them of the equal protection of the laws.”
Estate of Adriano Roman, Jr. v. City of Newark (2019) ca3 · cites it 8× “§ 1983 , civil conspiracy in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985 , conspiracy to commit an unlawful search in violation of the New Jersey Constitution and 42 U.”
Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic (1993) scotus · cites it 14× “§ 1980, 42 U. S. C. § 1985 (3) — the surviving version of §2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 — provides a federal cause of action against persons obstructing access to abortion clinics.”
Great American Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Novotny (1979) scotus · cites it 12× “In the case now before us, we consider the scope of 42 U. S. C. § 1985 (3) (1976 ed., Supp. II), the surviving version of § 2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871.”
A Society Without a Name v. Commonwealth of Virginia (2011) ca4 · cites it 8× “In addition to claiming that the defendants' actions violated the ADA, the FHA, and 42 U.S.C. § 1985 (3), ASWAN asserted that VCU retaliated against it in violation of the ADA for bringing this suit by withdrawing VCU's earlier promise to help pay the cost of transporting…”
United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, Local 610 v. Scott (1983) scotus · cites it 10× “This case concerns the scope of the cause of action made available by 42 U. S. C. § 1985 (3) (1976 ed., Supp. V) [*] to those injured by conspiracies formed "for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of…”
Arlena Kelly v. City of Omaha (2016) ca8 · cites it 4× “” Kelly also sues these defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1985 , claiming that the defendants conspired to intimidate her in order to deter her from obtaining a lawyer or appealing her citations and to prevent her from testifying truthfully in the criminal proceedings brought against…”
Kinney v. Weaver (2002) ca5 · cites it 9× “” Kinney and Hall claimed that in taking such action, the defendants had violated: (1) their rights to testify freely under 42 U.S.C. § 1985 (2), (2) their rights to free speech under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, (3) their rights to due process of law under the…”
Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization (1979) scotus · cites it 8× “Part III of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, as proposed, authorized the Attorney General to institute suits for injunctive relief against conspiracies to deprive citizens of the civil rights specified in 42 U. S. C. § 1985 , which includes voting rights.”
Schenck v. Pro-Choice Network of Western NY (1997) scotus · cites it 10× “§ 1980, 42 U. S. C. § 1985 (3); discrimination against and harassment of women seeking abortions and other family planning services, in violation of N.”
Coulibaly v. Kerry (2016) dcd · cites it 7× “¶¶ 130-139; (9) Count 15, which alleges that MSPB judges committed conspiracy in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985 , see id. ¶¶ 140-42; 33 (10) Count 16, which asks the Court to review his retaliation claims relating to events that occurred in 2009, see id.”
Boler v. Earley (2017) ca6 · cites it 4× “The Plaintiffs also alleged claims for (6) conspiracy to deprive them of a constitutional right in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985 ; (7) breach of contract; (8) unjust enrichment; (9) breach of implied warranty of merchantability; (10) violation of the Michigan Consumer Protection…”
— 42 U.S.C. § 1985(1) — 1 case
Rowe v. Santilli (2024) ctd
— 42 U.S.C. § 1985(2) — 16 cases
Turner v. Baxley (1972) vtd
Skolnick v. Nudelman (1968) illappct
— 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) — 84 cases
Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic (1993) scotus “§ 1980, 42 U. S. C. § 1985 (3) — the surviving version of §2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 — provides a federal cause of action against persons obstructing access to abortion clinics.”
— 42 U.S.C. § 1985(c) — 1 case
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.