Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by sidewndr46 27 days ago
From my perspective civil rights are the constitutional rights that the government can uniquely deprive you of. For example, a jury trial. No one else can try you, so only the government can deprive you of that right. It's fairly limited in practice anyways, but it is true.

The right to life, etc. anyone can deprive you of.

1 comments

No. The US Civil Rights Act covered discrimination from business owners for example. And anyone could prevent you to vote or attempt coercion.
Elections are not private. I don't see how someone could stop me from voting. If they do that is just kidnapping, threats of violence, etc.
> Elections are not private.

Who said they were?

> I don't see how someone could stop me from voting. If they do that is just kidnapping, threats of violence, etc.

Section 131(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 states that “[n]o person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose” for any candidate for federal office.[1]

[1] https://journals.law.harvard.edu/crcl/what-is-voter-intimida...

right, and that shouldn't be prosecuted under it's own statue. Threats of violence should always be illegal