Jasper Yarbrough and seven fellow members of the Ku Klux Klan beat and injured Berry Saunders, an African-American man, in order to keep him from casting a vote in a Georgia congressional election. They were charged with violating two provisions of federal law: Sections 5508 (derived from Section 6 of the Enforcement Act of 1870) and 5520 (derived from Section 2 of the Ku Klux Act of 1871) of the Revised Statutes, which prevented individuals from conspiring to deprive others of their constitutional rights and their right to vote in federal elections. The defendants were tried and convicted in the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and five were sentenced to two years' imprisonment each. They sought a writ of habeas corpus, arguing that Congress's power to regulate elections did not permit it to regulate the conduct of individuals. The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case on January 23 and 24, 1884.
