Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/834

 822 FEDEAAL REPORTER, �race, eolor, or previous condition of servitude. Sec. 2. Th& eongress shall have power to enforce this article by appropri- ate legislation." �In the case of The United States v. Reese, (92 U. S. 214,) it is held that the fif teenth ainendment does not confer the right of suffrage, but it invests citizens of the United States with the right of exemption from discrimination in the exer- cise of the elective franchise on account of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude; that the power of eon- gress to legislate at ail upon the subject of voting at stat& elections rests upon this amendment, and can be exercised by prescribing punishment only when the wrongful refusai to receive the vote of a quaMed elector is because of his race, etc., and that the third and fourth sections of the enforce- ment act are unauthorized by the fifteenth amendment, and Toid, because they are not conuned in their operation to un- lawful discrimination on account of race, etc. �The right to vote in the states cornes from the states,. while only the right of exemption from discrimination cornes from the United States. The prohibition against discrimina- tion is against the United States and the states, and not against iudividuals. The first section of the amendment i» self-execnting, and of its own force renders void ail legisla- tion, state or national, which discriminates against citizens^ of the United states on account of their race, color, or previous condition of servitude. States might, however, venture upon prohibited legislation, and it is competent for eongress to pro- vide for the punishment of persons who, under the pretended authority of such prohibited legislation, deprive or attempt to deprive citizens of the United States of their right to vote. Undoubtedly, eongress may forbid the enforcement of ail laws which abridge the rights of citizens to vote on account of their race, etc. ; and further provision may be made for the adequate punishment of state or other ofiBcers or persons who assume the responsibility of enforcing such laws. But this eongress did not do or attempt to do by the fifth section. By this section punishment is declared against those who, in any of the specified ways, endeavor to prevent "any person ��� �