Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any citizen in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States or because of his having so exercised the same; or if two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured, they shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than ten years ”

“ And to hold that while a single election officer is now immune from prosecution, two or more can be indicted under § 5508, gives an enlarged operation to the theory that an act, not in itself criminal, may be punished if committed by more than one. ”

“ And that ordinary rule is especially applicable when a statute is sought to be enforced against election officers for the relation between the states and the Federal government is such that the power of the United States courts to punish state officers for wrongs committed by them as officers should be clearly and expressly defined by Congress, and not left to implication-especially so when Congress has given such an explicit expression of its intent that election officers should not be punished in the Federal courts. ”