The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1883-10-24
CIVIL RIGHTS.
Important Decision by the Su-
preme Court of the
United States.
The Acts Of Congress Of March 1st,
1875, Declared UncOnstitu'
tiOnal and Void.

pOrtant decision rendered Dy the Su-
preme Court of the United States to-day
| was that on five cases commonly known
as Civil Rights Cases." which were sub
mitted to the court in printed arguments
about year ago.
These cases were all based on tho first
and second sections of the Civil Rights
Act of 1875, and were respectively pro-
secutions under that act for not admit
ting colored persons to equal accOmmo-
dations and privileges in inns, hotels, or
railroad cars and theaters. The defense
set up in every case was unconstitution-
ality of the laws in the first and second
sections of the act, which were the parts
directly in controversy, and are as fol-
lows:
Section L. That all persons within the
jurisdiction of the United States shall be
entitled to full and equal enjoyment of
accommodations, advantages, facilities
and privileges at inns, public convey
anccs, on land or water, at theatres and
other places of public amusement, sub
ject only to the conditions and limita-
tions established by law and applicable
alike to every race and color, regardless
of any previous condition of servitude.
Section 2 provides that any person
who violates the first section shall be
liable to forfeit of $500 for each offense,
to be recovered in civil rights action;
also to penalty Of from $500 to 81 600
fine, or Imprisonment for from thirty
days to one year, to be enforced in
criminal prosecution Exclusive juris-
diction is given to the District and Cir
cult Courts in the United States in cases
.arising under the law of rights and
privileges claimed by and denied to
colored persons. In these cases where
full and equal accommodations in hotels,
in ladies' ears on railway trains and in
dress circles in theatres, the court, in a
long and carefully prepared opinion by
Justice Bradley, hold:
1st That Congress had no constitu-
tional authority to pass the sections in
question under either the 18th or l4th
amendment to the Constitution.
'2nd. That the l4th amendment is
prohibitory upon the States only, and
that the legislation authorized to be
adopted by Congress for enforcing that
amendment is not direct legislation on
matters respecting which the States are
prohibited from making or enforcing
acts, but is corrective legislation, neces-
sary and proper for counteracting and
redressing the effect of such law or acts.
That in forbidding the States, as for ex-
ample, "To deprive any person Of liberty
or property without due process of law
and giving Congress power to enforce
prohibition it was not intended to give
Congress power to provide due process
OF law for the protection of life, liberty
and property, which would embrace
almost all subjects of legislation, but to
provides mode of redress for counter
acting the operation and effect of State
laws obnoxious to prohibition.
3rd. That the 18th Amendment gives
no power to Congress to pass the sections
referred to, because that amendment re-
lates only to slavery and involuntary
servitude, which it abolishes and gives
Congress power to pass laws for its en-
forcement. That this power only en-
tends to subject the latter amendment
itself, namely, slavery and involuntary
servitnde, the necessary incidents and
consequences of those conditions; that it
has nothing to do with the different
races or colors, but only refers to slavery,
legal equality Of the different races and
classes, and the citizens being provided
for in the 14th amendment. which pro-
hibits States from doing anything to in
terfere with such equality that it is no
infringement on the 18th amendment to
refuse to any person equal accommofa-
tions and privileges in inns and places
of public entertainment, however it NAV
be violativc of his legal rights that it
imposes upon him no badge Of slavery
or involuntary servitude, which is to inn
ply some sort of subjection of one person
to another, and incapacity, incident
thereto. such as inability to hold proper
ty, to make contracts, to be parties in
court, etc, and that if the original civil
rights act, which abolishes these incapa-
cities, might be supported by the 18th
amendment, it does not therefore fol-
low that the act of 1873 can be supported
by it.
4th. That this decision affects only the
validity of the law in States and not in
Territories or the District Of Columbia,
where the legislative power of Congress
is unlimited, and it does not undertake
to decide what Congress might or might
not do under the power to regulate COM
merce with foreign nations and amongst
the several States. the law not being
drawn with any such view.
5th. That it is she opinion Of the
court that the first and second acts of
Congress, March LIST, 1873, entitled, "An
Act 10 protect all citizens in their civil
and legal rights are unconstitutional
and void, and Judgment should be
rendered upon the indictments accord
idgly.
At the conclusion of the reading Of
Judge Bradley's opinion, which occupied
more than an hour, Justice Harlan said
Under ordinary circumstances and in
ordinary cases he should hesitate to sci
up his individual opinion in opposition
to his eight colleagues, but in view O
what he thought the people of this coun
try wished to accomplish, what they
tried to accomplish, and what they be
lieved they had accomplished by mean!
of this legislation, he must express hi
, dissent from the opinion of the court
, He had not had time since hearing tha
, opinion to prepare statement givinl
the grounds of his dissent, but he shoult
prepare and file one as soon as possible
, and in the meantime he desired'to pu
upon record this expression of his indiyi
dual judgment.