United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, Local 610, Afl-Cio, et al. v. Scott et al.

Decided July 5, 1983. Byron Raymond White delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 82-486 · 463 U.S. 825 (1983) · Cited 1,347 times

Holding

An alleged conspiracy to infringe First Amendment rights is not a violation of 1985(3) unless it is proved that the State is involved in the conspiracy or the aim of the conspiracy is to influence the activity of the State.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 5–4.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Griffin v. Breckenridge · 403 U.S. 88 (1971)
• Great American Federal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Novotny · 442 U.S. 366 (1979)
• Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States · 379 U.S. 241 (1964)
• United States v. Harris · 106 U.S. 629 (1883)
• Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Servs. · 436 U.S. 658 (1978)
• Briscoe v. LaHue · 460 U.S. 325 (1983)
• United States v. Cruikshank · 92 U.S. 542 (1876)
• Collins v. Hardyman · 341 U.S. 651 (1951)
• United States v. Williams · 341 U.S. 70 (1951)
• United States v. Price · 383 U.S. 787 (1966)
• United States v. Guest · 383 U.S. 745 (1966)
• Evans v. Newton · 382 U.S. 296 (1966)
• Katzenbach v. McClung · 379 U.S. 294 (1964)
• Kush v. Rutledge · 460 U.S. 719 (1983)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Bray v. Alexandria Women's Health Clinic · 506 U.S. 263 (1993)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Byron Raymond White’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1983). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).