Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/529

 IN RE TUBURCIO PARROTT. 521 �tection of the laws, or of eqaal privileges and immunities imder the law, » * * each of such persons shall be punished by a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, or by imprisonment, with or witbout hard labor, not less than six months nor more than six, years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. " These provisions of the United States stat- utes — the supreme law of the land — are commended to the consideration of ail persons who are disposed to go from place to place, and, by means of threats and intimidation, endeavor to compel employers to discharge peaceable and industrious Chinamen engaged in their service. There are other provis- ions, both civil and criminal, of a similar character, having the same end in view. �Only a few days since the supreme court of the United States sustained an indictment in In re Coles and The Com- monwealth of Virginia, petitioners, on habeas corpus, against a county judge of Virginia, found under section 4 of the civil rights act of 1875, (18 Stat. 336,) for failing to summon col- ored citizens as jurors, "on account of race and color." The court held this act to be constitutional and valid under the fourteenth amendment, and that it deprived colored citizens of the equal protection of the laws. Thus it appears that congress, by the most stringent statutory provisions, has provided for the protection of ail citizens and persons within the jurisdic- tion of the United States, in thefuU and complete en joy ment of the "equal protection of the laws," and of ail "privi- leges and immunities guaraùteed" by the fourteenth amend- ment, in ail their phases; and that the highestjudicial tribunal of the nation has deemed it its duty to give such statutory provisions the fullest and most complete effect. �The resuit is that the prisoner is in custody in violation both of the constitution and laws of the United States, and of the treaty between the United States and the Empire of China^ and is entitled to be discharge dj and it is 80 ordered. ��� �