Title 42The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73

§1985 Conspiracy to interfere with civil rights

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 21— - CIVIL RIGHTS › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - GENERALLY › § 1985

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Makes it a crime for two or more people in a state or territory to plan to use force, threats, or scare tactics to stop someone from taking or holding a U.S. office, or from doing the duties of that office; to force a U.S. officer to leave the place where they must work; or to hurt an officer or their property because the officer lawfully did their job. Also bans plots to stop or scare witnesses or jurors from going to federal court or testifying, to tamper with verdicts or punish people for enforcing equal rights, to wear disguises in public or on someone’s property to deny people equal treatment, or to prevent a lawful voter from supporting a candidate for President, Vice President (as an elector), or Member of Congress. If one or more conspirators act and someone is injured or loses a citizen right, the injured person can sue the conspirators for money damages.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §1985

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(1)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)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)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.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification 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.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 1985

Title 42The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73