Ku Klux Klan Case

A US Supreme Court decision (Ex parte Yarbrough) of 1884 dealing with federal enforcement of the Fifteenth Amendment. Jasper Yarbrough, a Georgia Klansman, was convicted under the Enforcement Act 1870 of harassing a black voter. He appealed to the US Supreme Court on the grounds that the Fifteenth Amendment grants only the right to vote; it does not give Congress the power to protect that right. The Court unanimously upheld the Enforcement Act, ruling that the federal government had legitimate power to protect citizens from racial discrimination in all circumstances surrounding voting in federal elections.