Conspiracy against rights is afederal offense in theUnited States of America under18 U.S.C. § 241:
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person [...] in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by theConstitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same;...
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts includekidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravatedsexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt tokill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.[1][2]
The law was originally enacted, with slightly different phrasing, in Section 6 of theEnforcement Act of 1870.[3]: 913 The statutory text was revised in 1909 and in 1948, when it became Section 241 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code.[4]: 236 Conspiracy against rights was initially invoked against vigilante groups like theKu Klux Klan that acted to prevent recently-emancipatedBlack Southerners from exercising their rights granted by theReconstruction Amendments in the aftermath of theAmerican Civil War.[5][6][7] The legislative intent of the statute was aimed towards election offenses which interfered with the exercise of theFourteenth andFifteenth Amendments. As the law does not define new rights nor does it elaborate on the range relevant rights or privileges, courts have generally interpreted that the attempted deprivation of a broad range of rights falls under the scope of the statute. TheSupreme Court would later note inUnited States v. Price (1966) that it was "hardly conceivable that Congress intended §241 to apply only to a narrow and relatively unimportant category of rights."[8]: 486–487
Convictions under §241 require that the government demonstrates that thedefendant conspired to violate a constitutionally or federally protected right. The statute does not explicitly establish a requirement that defendants acted willfully undercolor of law, but courts have incorporated these elements in their interpretation of the law.[9]: 32–33 A charge of conspiracy against rights does not require that the conspiracy is successful in accomplishing its goals,[10]: 35 nor does it require execution of anovert act unlike other conspiracy-related statutes.[11] Section §241 violations are charged asfelonies with the possibility of fines up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to ten years,[9]: 32–33 [8]: 485 including in circumstances where execution of an overt act would only be charged as amisdemeanor.[12]: 290 The statute also allows for harsher penalties (includinglife imprisonment or thedeath penalty) if the conspiracy either attempts to cause or results in death, kidnapping, or aggravated sexual abuse.[13]: 1 Charges of conspiracy against rights were formerly shaped by the statute's legislative intent and limited via Supreme Court decisions, such as inU.S. v. Cruikshank (1876).[5][6][8]: 487 The Supreme Court determined inCruikshank that the rights covered by the statute did not include those arising fromnatural law. In the decades following, the court would vary on the issue of the scope of conspiracy against rights.[3]: 914–916 The court would eventually rule inPrice that §241 safeguarded rights both explicit and implicit in the Constitution.[3]: 919 Use of the statute expanded in the 20th century, and §241 is now a key component ofcivil rights enforcement and has been used in prosecutions oflaw enforcement misconduct,hate crimes, andwitness tampering, as well as in prosecutions ofhuman trafficking prior to the adoption of human trafficking conspiracy statutes.[5][6][11][14]: 626
The law has long been invoked in federal prosecutions offederal elections offenses, concerning abrogation of theright to vote, but has been more recently applied to state or local elections with federal components, as well as by some courts in elections solely at the state or local level.[8]: 483 While the Supreme Court has held that the right to vote in state and local elections is constitutionally protected, it has not explicitly ruled on the applicability of §241 to such elections.[8]: 487 Charges of conspiracy against rights concerning federal election offenses cover activities subverting the integrity of federal elections and do not require direct action towards an individual voter. Election conspiracies prosecuted under conspiracy against rights can be classified as either public schemes (where public officials commit a §241 violation under color of law) or private schemes (where conspirators impinge on the ability for voters to vote). While charges under the statute can be brought forth for any public scheme, federal prosecution of private schemes require that the conspiracy was targeted at a specific federal contest or affected such a contest.[10]: 36–37 Federal prosecutors have brought the charge of conspiracy against rights in cases involvingballot stuffing,disfranchisement, the destruction of ballots,voter fraud, and interference of the accurate counting of votes.[10]: 34–35
A 2018 report by theUnited States–China Economic and Security Review Commission referred to theChinese government's attempts to suppress overseas protests and acts of expression critical of theChinese Communist Party as a conspiracy against rights.[15]
InScrews v. United States, theSupreme Court held that a conviction under a related statute,18 U.S.C. §242, required proof of the defendant's specific intent to deprive the victim of a constitutional right.[16] InUnited States v. Guest, the Supreme Court read this same requirement into §241, the conspiracy statute.[17]