Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-10-25
The Civil-Rights Bill Declared Null
and Void by the Supreme Court.

preme court OF the u nlted States rem
dered decision to-day IN the five
civil rights cases submitted on printed
arguments about year ago. The
titles of these ceses and the States
from which they came are as follows:
No. United States against Murray
Stanley, from the United States cir.
cult court, district Kansas; No. 2,
United States against Michael Ryan,
from the United States circuit court,
district of California; No. 3, United
States against Samuel Nichols, from
the United States circuit court, West
ern district of Missouri; No. 26, Uni
ted States against Samuel D. Singleton,
from the United States circuit court
for the Southern district of New York.
and No. %, Richard A. Robinson and
wife against the Memphis and Charles.
ton Railroad company from the United
States circuit court for the district of
of Tennessee. These cases were all
based on the first and second sections
of the clvil-rlghts act of 1875, and
were respectively prosecutions under
that act for not admitting certain col
ored persons to equal Accommodations
and privileges in inns or hotels, in
railroad cars and IN theatres. The de.
fence set up in every case was the al
legged unconstltutionality of the law.
The first and second section of the act
which were the parts directly IN con-
troversy, are as follows:
Sec. l. That all the persons within
the jurisdiction of the United States
shall be entitled to the full enjoyment
of the Accommodations, advantages, IA
cilities, and privileges of inns, public
conveyances on land and on water,
in theatres and other places of amuse-
ment, subject only to the conditions
and limitations established by law,
and applicable alike to every race and
color, regardless of any previous con-
dition of servitude.
The second section provides that
any person who violates the first Sec
ton shall be liable to forfeit of $500
for each offense, to be recovered in civil
action, and also to a penalty of from
$500 to $1,000 6ne or Imprisonment
from thirty days to one year, to be en-
forced by criminal prosecution. Ex-
elusive jurisdiction is given to the
district and circuit courts of the Uni
ted States in cases arising under the
law.
The rights and privileges claimed
by and denied to colored persons in
these cases were full and equal ac-
commodations in hotels, in ladies' cars
on railway trains, and IN the dress
circle in theatres.
THE COURTS DECISION.
The court IN a long and carefully
prepared opinion by Justice Bradley,
holds:
l. That congress had no constitu-
tional authority to pass the section in
question under either the thirteenth or
fourteenth amendment to the consti-
tuition.
2. That the fourteenth amendment
is prohibitory upon States only, and
the legislation authorized to be adopted
by congress for enforcing that amend
ment is not direct Legislation on mat
ters respecting which States are pro-
hibited from making or enforcing GER
tain laws or doing certain acts, but is
corrective legislation necessary or
proper for counteractlng and redress
ing the effect of such law or acts; that
in forbldding States, for example, to
deprive any person Of liberty or prop
erty without due process of law and
giving power to enforce this prohibi-
ton, it was not intended to give con-
gress power to provide due process of
law for the protection of life, liberty,
and property (Which embrace almost
all subjects of legislation, but to pro-
vide modes of redress for counteract-
ing the operation and effect of State
law obnoxious to the prohibition.
8. That the thirteenth amendment
gives no power to Congress to pass the
sections referred to, because that
amendment relates only to slavery and
involuntary servitude, which it
abolishes, and gives Congress power
to pass laws for its enforcement; that
this power only extends to the subject
matter of the amendment itse!f-name.
ly; slavery and involuntary servitude,
and the necessary incidents and con-
sequences of those conditions; that it
has nothing to do with different races
or colors, but only refers to slavery,
the legality of different races and
classes of citizens being provided for
IN the fourteenth amendment, which
prohibits States from doing anything
to interfere with such equality; that
it is no infringement of the thirteenth
amendment to refuse to any person
equal accommodations and privileges
at an inn or place of public entertain,
ment, however 1t may be violative of
his legal rights; that it imposes upon
him no badge of slavery or involunta-
ry servitude, which implies some sort
of subsection of one person to another,
and the incapacity incident thereto,
such as inability to hold property, to
make contracts, to be parties in court,
etc., and that if the original civil