In United States v. Harris (1883) the Supreme Court ruled that Congress under normal circumstances cannot legislate against ordinary crimes such as murder or assault. On August 14, 1876, four prisoners, Robert Smith, William Overton, George Wells, and Peter Wells, were dragged from the Crockett County, Tennessee jail by Sheriff R.G. Harris and 19 others. The prisoners were beaten and one killed while a deputy unsuccessfully tried to convince the mob to stop. Sheriff Harris and his accomplices were indicted in the US Court for the Western District of Tennessee for depriving the men of their constitutional rights and the Equal Protection Clause.
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously that it was outside Federal jurisdiction under the 10th Amendment. Justice William Woods wrote the opinion. He stated that the Constitution had no provision in it allowing Federal prosecution of common crimes and thus the members of the lynch mob could not be indicted by a Federal court.Woods added that the 15th Amendment had no applicability here since the Court had earlier ruled in United States v. Reese that it did not confer suffrage on anyone and merely forbade suffrage from being denied on the grounds of racial background. The 14th Amendment did not apply either as its purpose was to prevent state governments from denying their citizens civil liberties or the protection of the law and it did not cover the acts of individuals.
>>18447826>>18447828I'd heard of this case and always assumed the guys they beat up were black, but their race is not stated anywhere and they have white-sounding names. No indication of what their crimes were though.
>>18447826>>18447828Nice sob story, do Plessy v. Ferguson next! But Wong Kim Ark was a good thing right?
>>18447915They were white and the men were jailed for starting a street fight with some other dudes over an upcoming local election and Civil War loyalties from more than a decade earlier.
