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| Long title | An Act to enforce the Right of Citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of the Union, and for other Purposes. |
|---|---|
| Nicknames | Civil Rights Act of 1870, Enforcement Act, First Ku Klux Klan Act, Force Act |
| Enacted by | the41st United States Congress |
| Citations | |
| Statutes at Large | 16 Stat. 140-146 |
| Legislative history | |
| |
| Major amendments | |
| Second Enforcement Act of 1871 (s. 20) | |
| United States Supreme Court cases | |
TheEnforcement Act of 1870, also known as theCivil Rights Act of 1870 orFirst Ku Klux Klan Act, orForce Act (41st Congress, Sess. 2, ch. 114, 16 Stat. 140, enacted May 31, 1870, effective 1871), is aUnited States federal law that empowers thePresident to enforce the first section of theFifteenth Amendment throughout theUnited States. The act was the first of threeEnforcement Acts passed by theUnited States Congress in 1870 and 1871, during theReconstruction Era, to combat attacks on thevoting rights ofAfrican Americans from state officials or violent groups like theKu Klux Klan.[1][2]
The Enforcement Act of 1870 prohibits discrimination by state officials in voter registration on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It establishes penalties for interfering with a person's right to vote and gave federal courts the power to enforce the act.
The act also authorizes the President to use the army to uphold the act and use federal marshals to bring charges against offenders for election fraud, bribery or intimidation of voters, and conspiracies to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.
The act bans the use of terror, force or bribery to prevent people from voting because of their race.[3] Other laws banned the KKK entirely. Hundreds of KKK members were arrested and tried as common criminals and terrorists.[4] The first Klan was more or less eradicated within a year of federal prosecution.
This act consists of 23 sections, some of which have been more notable than others.
Section 1 states that anyone who is qualified to vote in any election anywhere in the United States, including any "territorial subdivision", is eligible to vote in every election there, "without distinction of race, color, or previous condition of servitude". This section additionally overrides all law to the contrary.
Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 provide civil remedies for people who are disenfranchised in several different ways, and additionally makes such acts a misdemeanor:
In each of the above cases, the person responsible must pay $500 compensation to the victim, and on conviction be fined at least $500, and at the discretion of the court, imprisoned for a period between one month and one year.[5][page needed]
Section 6 makes it a felony for two or more persons to "band or conspire together, or go in disguise upon the public highway, or upon the premises of another", in order to violate any provision of the Act or intimidate anyone in regard to their constitutional or federal legal rights. The sentence is up to $5000 and ten years' imprisonment. The offender is also disqualified from holding any federal office.
Section 7 empowers a court convicting a person of any crime under this act to punish them for any state crime that was committed in the course of committing the crime under this act.
Section 8 denies state courts jurisdiction over crimes under this act, leaving jurisdiction solely to federal district and circuit courts.
Section 9 gives federal district attorneys, marshals, and deputy marshals, court commissioners, and special appointees of the President, the duty to arrest, detain, bail, and prosecute persons suspected of offences under this act.
Section 10 gives marshals and their deputies the duty to execute warrants under this act, on pain of a $1000 penalty payable to the victim of disenfranchisement. It also gives them the power ofposse comitatus, including the use of US armed forces and militia, for the purpose of enforcing such warrants.
Section 11 prohibits interfering with process under this act, including obstruction, harbouring fugitives, and rescue of detainees. The penalty is up to $1000 fine or six months' imprisonment, or both.
Section 12 authorizes fees for commissioners, district attorneys, marshals, their deputies, and clerks, in relation to process under this act, including costs of imprisonment, to be paid out of the US Treasury and recoverable from the offender on conviction.
Section 13 empowers the President to authorize use of militias and the armed forces to enforce process under this act. (Such use was subsequently made generally illegal under thePosse Comitatus Act of 1878, unless authorized by Congress, such as in this section.)
Sections 14 and 15 enforce section three of theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, by instructing federal prosecutors to use a writ ofquo warranto to remove people from government offices who were disqualified by that amendment. Reasons for such disqualification include insurrection or rebellion against the United States; holding office contrary to such disqualification became a misdemeanor. The Enforcement Act's quo warranto provisions were repealed in 1948.[6] However, even after that repeal, there remained a federal statute initially contained in theConfiscation Act of 1862 which made insurrection a federal crime, and disqualified insurrectionists from federal offices.[7]
Section 16 partially implements the14th Amendment by stating that everyone in the United States has the same right to contract, sue, be a party to a case, give evidence, and benefit from the same protection of laws and be subject to the same penalties of laws, taxes etc. as white citizens. It additionally prohibits states from taxing or making other charges on immigrants that discriminate between different countries of origin. Section 17 makes such discrimination under color of law a misdemeanor, punishable with a $1000 fine or imprisonment for up to a year or both.
Section 18 re-enacts theCivil Rights Act of 1866, whose constitutionality was in question until the passage of the 14th Amendment in 1868.
Section 19 prohibits various forms of misconduct relating to voting; section 20 does the same for registration of voters, with theSecond Enforcement Act of 1871 amending this section to add counting, certifying and announcing election results. Section 21 provides evidentiary presumptions relating to these offences. Section 22 makes it a crime for electoral officials to fail or refuse to do their duty. The penalty for any of the crimes under these sections is a $500 fine or three years' imprisonment, or both, plus costs.
Section 23 provides that if a person is denied election to office (exceptpresidential or vice-presidential elector, member of Congress, or member of a state legislature) because some persons were denied the right to vote by reason of race, color or previous condition of servitude, the person so denied is nonetheless entitled to office and may sue to recover it. Federal circuit and district courts have jurisdiction if such denial of the right to vote was the sole reason for denial of office.
The act developed from separate legislative actions in the House and Senate.H.R. 1293 was introduced byHouseRepublicanJohn Bingham fromOhio on February 21, 1870, and discussed on May 16, 1870.[8]S. 810 grew from several bills from several Senators.United States SenatorGeorge F. Edmunds fromVermont submitted the first bill, followed byUnited States SenatorOliver P. Morton fromIndiana,United States SenatorCharles Sumner fromMassachusetts, andUnited States SenatorWilliam Stewart fromNevada. After three months of debate in theCommittee on the Judiciary, the final Senate version of the bill was introduced to theSenate on April 19, 1870.[9] The act was passed by Congress in May 1870 and signed into law byUnited States PresidentUlysses S. Grant on May 31, 1870.
H.R. 1293 was brought to a floor vote in the chambers of the US Senate on May 21, 1870. Three political parties were present. The Republican Party voted 41 in favor, 1 against. The Democratic Party voted 0 in favor, 7 against, and the Liberal Republicans voted 2 in favor, 0 against. 21 members did not vote.[10]
It was brought to a floor vote in the US House of Representatives on May 23, 1870. Three political parties were present to vote in the House of Representatives on the motion to pass H.R. 1293. The Republican Party voted 132 in favor, 1 against. The Democratic Party voted 1 in favor, 50 against. And the Conservative Party voted 0 in favor, 3 against. 41 members did not vote.[11]
