CONSTITUTIONAL CALENDAR 3/27

You know him, you love him, you cannot live without him...No- Not Mike Pence. 
But Judge Milt Hirsch and his Constitutional Calendar.  If you like the Constitutional Calendar, you'll love the Chicago Cubs Calendar. For example:  September 9, 1969-- the infamous "Black Cat Game."
On August 19, 1969, after  a half a century of futility, the Chicago Cubs were in first place with an eight game lead. By the time they arrived in New York in September for a two game series, the lead had dwindled to two and a half games. The Cubs lost the first game on September 8 and they badly needed to win the second game and get out of the Big Apple with a split. Both teams sent their aces to the mound- Fergie Jenkins for the Cubbies and Tom Seaver for the Metropolitans. In the fourth inning Glenn Beckert for the Cubs hit a double to center field. Billy Williams was at the plate and Ron Santos was on deck and the Cubs were in a good position to score a run to take the lead. Then a Black Cat sauntered out on the field and walked behind Santos in the on-deck circle. The cat then walked back and forth in front of the Cubs dugout and looked right at Cubs Manager Leo Durocher before running under the stands.  Santos went on to single in Beckert for their sole run of the game. Seaver pitched a complete game and was never in trouble again. In the bottom of the Black Cat inning Donn Clendenon hit a two run homer and the Mets never looked back - at either the Cubs that night, or the NL East, clinching the dvision two weeks later as September 1969 documented yet again another Chicago late-season swoon. 

That is our version of the Chicago Cubs calendar were it to exist- a documentation of a century plus of misery. 

Anyway, here is Judge Hirsch's latest Constitutional Calendar missive: 

            The Enforcement Acts of 1870 were intended to empower federal law enforcement and the federal courts to combat the activities of the Ku-Klux Klan and like-kind organizations.  They provided, in pertinent part, that:

[I]f two or more persons shall band or conspire together, or go in disguise upon the public highway ... with intent ... to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any citizen, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise and enjoyment of any right or privilege granted or secured to him by the constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having exercised the same, such persons shall be held guilty of felony.

            On April 13, 1873, a group of white supremacists slaughtered more than 100 unarmed blacks in front of the Colfax, Louisiana, courthouse.  This atrocity garnered national attention.  President Grant labeled it a “butchery” that “in bloodthirstiness and barbarity is hardly surpassed by any acts of savage warfare.”

            Indictments were returned and the matter prosecuted in U.S. district court.  In due course the matter found its way to the Supreme Court.  See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (March 27, 1876).

            The Court’s treatment of the Enforcement Acts, and of the relevant constitutional provisions, opened the door to a century of racism, segregation, and abuse.  The rights of which the defendants were alleged to have deprived their victims – rights such as freedom of speech and public assembly – were guaranteed by the Constitution as against the federal government, not against state governments or private individuals.  Besides, the defendants were private-sector actors; the Fourteenth Amendment could do no more than empower the federal government to protect against the abuse of rights by the state.

            The order of the court below arresting the judgment upon the verdict of conviction was affirmed, and the case remanded with instructions to discharge the defendants.