The Group Dangers of Race-Based Conspiracies

Authors

Catherine E. Smith, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Rutgers Law Review

Publication Date

2006

Abstract

This article argues that just as federal courts recognize the group dangers of criminal conspiracies, they should recognize the special group dangers of race-based conspiracies, and hold racist corporate officers accountable for racially motivated intracorporate conspiracies under § 1985(3). If the defendants in Dickerson had been found guilty of the most basic federal criminal conspiracy, such as conspiring to defraud the government, they would have been sentenced accordingly because the majority of circuits reject the application of the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine to criminal conspiracies. The federal courts do not immunize intracorporate criminal conspiracies because "the action by an incorporated collection of individuals creates the 'group danger' at which conspiracy liability is aimed, and the view of the corporation as a single legal actor becomes a fiction without a purpose."

Recommended Citation

Catherine E. Smith, The Group Dangers of Race-Based Conspiracies, 59 Rutgers L. Rev. 55 (2006).