Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law
Publication Date
2004
Abstract
The intracorporate conspiracy doctrine should not be applicable to § 1985(3) conspiracies. Section 2 of the Ku Klux Klan Act was designed to specifically challenge collective action and eliminate the many ways in which individuals conspired to engage in civil rights violations. Some commentators may argue that race-based intracorporate agreements are actionable under other federal antidiscrimination laws and state causes of actions. However, § 1985(3) fulfills a unique role in the national comprehensive civil rights scheme to eliminate different forms of bias-motivated and discriminatory actions. As the only federal civil conspiracy statute that punishes individuals who use collective resources to deprive others of their federally protected rights, it serves the unique role of eliminating the dangers present in racially-motivated collective activity. These group dangers exist when the collective is comprised of members of two different corporate entities and when the collective is comprised of members of one corporation. Immunizing civil rights violations simply because the perpetrators are members of the same corporation veils the racist acts of conspirators behind the mask of a legal fiction. These conspirators hide behind the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine's cloak, while their victims suffer deprivations and permanent harm. The uncompensated physical and psychological injuries from collective racist acts that go unpunished make the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine a "fiction without a purpose."
Recommended Citation
Catherine E. Smith, (Un)Masking Race-Based Intracorporate Conspiracies under the Ku Klux Klan Act, 11 Va. J. Soc. Pol'y & L. 129 (2004).