United States v. Cruikshank
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United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1875) was an important United States Supreme Court decision in United States constitutional law, one of the earliest to deal with the application of the Bill of Rights to state governments following the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Cruikshank case dealt with the Colfax Massacre, an incident in which an armed mob of whites attacked and killed over one hundred blacks in Colfax, Louisiana. The ringleaders were put on trial and convicted under the Enforcement Act of 1870, legislation similar to modern legislation making it a crime to interfere with constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court ruled on a range of issues and found the indictment faulty. The Court found (contrary to modern Supreme Court rulings) that the 1st Amendment right to assembly "was not intended to limit the powers of the State governments in respect to their own citizens" and (neither directly supported nor directly contradicted by modern Supreme Court rulings) that the 2nd Amendment "has no other effect than to restrict the powers of the national government".
Although the Enforcement Act had been designed primarily to halt the violence of the Ku Klux Klan in preventing blacks from voting, the Cruikshank court held that the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses apply only to state action, and not to actions of individuals.
Although significant portions of Presser have been overturned by later decisions, it is still relied upon with some authority in other portions.
External links
- Full text of the decision courtesy of Findlaw.com (http://laws.findlaw.com/us/92/542.html)
- Bill of Rights Institute discussion of the case (http://www.billofrightsinstitute.org/article.php?sid=497)