US v. Cruikshank Ends Federal Protection of Black Citizens from Private Violence

In United States v. Cruikshank (1876), arising from the Colfax Massacre prosecutions, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the 14th Amendment only prohibited state action — not private violence — and that the federal government therefore had no power to prosecute private individuals who murdered or terrorized Black citizens. The Court also held that the right to bear arms and the right of assembly did not derive from the federal government and thus could not be federally protected. The decision eviscerated the Enforcement Acts and Ku Klux Klan Act, leaving Black Southerners with no federal legal protection from the paramilitary violence that was overthrowing Reconstruction governments.