Syllabus. Civil Rights Cases.—UNITED STATES _v._ STANLEY (on Certificate of Division from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Kansas)—UNITED STATES _v._ RYAN (in Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of California)—UNITED STATES _v._ NICHOLS (on Certificate of Division from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Missouri)—UNITED STATES _v._ SINGLETON (on Certificate of Division from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York)—ROBINSON AND WIFE _v._ MEMPHIS AND CHARLESTON RAILROAD COMPANY (in Error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Western District of Tennessee). Submitted October Term, 1882.—Decided October 15, 1883. _Civil Rights—Constitution—District of Columbia—Inns—Places of Amusement—Public Conveyances—Slavery—Territories._ 1. The 1st and 2nd sections of the Civil Rights Act passed March 1st, 1875, are unconstitutional enactments as applied to the several States, not being authorized either by the XIIIth or XIVth Amendments of the Constitution. 2. The XIVth Amendment is prohibitory upon the States only, and the legislation authorized to be adopted by Congress for enforcing it is not _direct_ legislation on the matters respecting which the States are prohibited from making or enforcing certain laws, or doing certain acts, but it is _corrective_ legislation, such as may be necessary or proper for counteracting and redressing the effects of such laws or acts. 3. The XIIIth Amendment relates to slavery and involuntary servitude (which it abolishes); and although, by its reflex action, it establishes universal freedom in the United States, and Congress may probably pass laws directly enforcing its provisions; yet such legislative power extends only to the subject of slavery and its incidents; and the denial of equal accommodations in inns, public conveyances and places of public amusement (which is forbidden by the sections in question), imposes no badge of slavery or involuntary servitude upon the party, but at most, infringes rights which are protected from State aggression by the XIVth Amendment. 4. Whether the accommodations and privileges sought to be protected by the 1st and 2nd sections of the Civil Rights Act are, or are not rights constitutionally demandable; and if they are, in what form they are to be protected is not now decided. 5. Nor is it decided whether the law as it stands is operative in the Territories and District of Columbia: the decision only relating to its validity as applied to States. 6. Nor is it decided whether Congress, under the commercial power, may or may not pass a law securing to all persons equal accommodations on lines of public conveyance between two or more States.