The constitutionality of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875, however, was finally settled in 1883. That year five cases[227] reached the Supreme Court, all of which had to do with the civil rights of Negroes. Two of them concerned the rights of colored persons in inns and hotels; two, their rights in theatres; and one, in railroad cars. Mr. Justice Bradley, delivering the opinion of the court, took the ground that the first and second sections of the Civil Rights Bill were unconstitutional for these reasons: (1) They are not authorized by the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing and prohibiting slavery, because the separation of the races in public places is not a badge of servitude. “It would be running the slavery argument into the ground,” he said, “to make it apply to every act of discrimination which a person may see fit to make as to the guests he will entertain, or as to the people he will take into his coach, or cab, or car, or admit to his concert or theatre, or deal with in other matters of intercourse or business.” (2) The Civil Rights Bill is not authorized by the Fourteenth Amendment, because that refers to action by the State, while the Bill refers to individual discrimination. It is State action of a particular kind that is prohibited. “Individual invasion of individual rights,” he argued, “is not the subject matter of the amendment.... It nullifies and makes void all State legislation, and State action of every kind, which impairs the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States.... It does not invest Congress with power to legislate upon subjects which are within the domain of State legislation; but to provide modes of relief against State legislation or State action.... It does not authorize Congress to create a code of municipal laws for the regulation of private rights, but to provide modes of redress against the operation of State laws, and the action of State officers, executive or judicial, when these are subversive of the fundamental rights specified in the Amendment ... until some State law has been passed, or some State action through its officers or agents has been taken, adverse to the rights of citizens sought to be protected by the Fourteenth Amendment, no legislation of the United States under said Amendment, nor any proceeding under such legislation, can be called into activity; for the prohibitions of the Amendment are against State laws and acts done under State authority.” The effect of this decision is that the Federal government cannot prevent the curtailment of the civil rights of Negroes by individuals unless such individuals are acting under sanction of State statutes, and in that case, the Federal court can only declare that the State statute is unconstitutional. STATE LEGISLATION BETWEEN 1865 AND 1883