United States v. Cruikshank

Common card · No. 261723

United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court, ruling that the U.S. Bill of Rights did not limit the power of private actors or state governments despite the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment. It reversed the federal criminal convictions for the civil rights violations committed in aid of anti-Reconstruction murders. Decided during the Reconstruction Era, the case represented a major defeat for federal efforts to protect the civil rights of African Americans. The case developed from the strongly contested 1872 Louisiana gubernatorial election. Rival groups were sworn in at the same time at both the state and parish level. In Grant Parish the fight over who would be sheriff, Nash or Shaw, and judge, Cazabat or Register, turned into the Colfax Massacre on April 13, 1873. Dozens of Black freedmen and three white men were killed. The parish government that would normally prosecute the crimes was then run by the same group that...

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