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tHe enforcement Act of 1871, April 20, 1871 U.S. Statutes at Large 17:13–15. Popularly called the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 (perhaps more accurately, it ought to be called the Anti–Ku Klux Klan Act), this second and most important of the Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 is also an act that federal prosecutors continue to use. Section 2 provides federal authorities the power to act to prosecute actions denying the rights of u.S. citizens. Since the 1868 Fourteenth Amendment, united States citizens possess dual citizenship— citizenship of their state and citizenship of the nation. Those two citizenships are not identical, and it might be possible for states to act (or not act) in a fashion that denies or abridges a person’s rights or privileges as a u.S. citizen. This act provides the federal government the abilities to prosecute persons who deny individuals their rights as national citizens. And, as the second sentence of Section 2 makes clear, any person whose federal rights have been abridged can seek a remedy for the denial of civil rights in the federal courts. Although the immediate cause of this statute was the outbreak of violence in the western counties of South Carolina against the black and unionist populations, this section has proven useful to federal prosecutors in more recent times. Now located in 42 u.S.C.A. §1983, §1983, prosecutions usually occur when a state proceeding has occurred and resulted in an acquittal of a crime; but, the individual has still sustained an injury so that the same action can be prosecuted in federal courts as a denial of civil rights. To use a famous example from the 1990s, the police officers videotaped beating Rodney King in California were tried in state court for the assault, and found innocent. The local federal prosecutor then brought a §1983 prosecution against them for denying King his civil right not to be beaten; the federal jury found the officers guilty of denying him his civil rights. Thus, this Reconstruction statute casts a long shadow in united States history and culture and continues to find use into the twenty-first century. Documentary History of the American Civil War era 278 Chap. XXII.—An Act to enforce the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who, under color of any law, statute , ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any person within the jurisdiction of the united States to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution of the united States, shall, any such law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of the State to the contrary notwithstanding, be liable to the party injured in any action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress; such proceedings to be prosecuted in the several district or circuit courts of the united States, with and subject to the same rights of appeal, review upon error, and other remedies provided in like cases in such courts, under the provision of the act of the ninth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled “An act to protect persons in the united States in their civil rights, and to furnish the means of their vindication”; and other remedial laws of the united States which are in their nature applicable in such cases. Sec. 2. That if two or more persons within any State or Territory of the united States shall conspire together to overthrow, or to put down, or to destroy by force the government of the united States, or to levy war against the united States, or to oppose by force the authority of the government of the united States, or by force, intimidation, or threat to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the united States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the united States contrary to the authority thereof, or by force, intimidation, or threat to prevent any person from accepting or holding any office or trust or place of confidence under the united States, or from discharging the duties thereof, of by force, intimidation, or threat to induce any officer of the united States to leave any State, district, or place where his duties as...

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