## Facts

- Blyew and Kennard, white men, were charged with murdering Lucy Armstrong, a Black woman, in Kentucky in 1868.
- Kentucky law barred Black persons from testifying in criminal cases against white defendants.
- Federal prosecutors proceeded in federal circuit court, alleging jurisdiction under § 3 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 because Lucy Armstrong and two Black eyewitnesses were denied the right to testify and equal benefit of laws for personal security in Kentucky courts.
- The defendants objected that § 3 did not cover the case because the Black victim and witnesses were not parties to the prosecution.
- The federal circuit court rejected the jurisdictional objection and continued the case; the Supreme Court reviewed on writ of error.

## Issues

1. Whether § 3 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 grants federal jurisdiction over a criminal prosecution on the theory that it is a “cause … affecting” Black persons who are barred by state law from testifying, when those persons are only witnesses or the deceased victim rather than parties.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the circuit court’s assertion of jurisdiction.
- The Court held that a criminal prosecution does not “affect” mere witnesses within the meaning of § 3.
- The Court further held the statute does not treat a prosecution as “affecting” a person “not in existence,” so the deceased victim could not supply jurisdiction.
- Because the case did not fall within § 3, the federal circuit court lacked jurisdiction to maintain the prosecution.

## Legal Principles

- Under § 3 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, federal jurisdiction over “causes, civil and criminal, affecting persons” denied specified civil rights in state courts is limited to causes in which those persons are parties whose legal rights are directly adjudicated.
- A criminal prosecution is not a “cause … affecting” a person solely because the person is a witness; witness participation is insufficient to confer § 3 jurisdiction.
- A criminal prosecution is not a “cause … affecting” a deceased victim for § 3 purposes.
- Federal jurisdiction created by statute, particularly in the criminal context, is not extended by policy concerns beyond the statute’s text as construed by the Court.

## Conclusion

The Court construed § 3 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 narrowly, holding that federal courts lacked jurisdiction over a Kentucky murder prosecution where the Black persons allegedly denied equal rights were only witnesses or a deceased victim, not parties to the case.


Blyew v. United States, 80 U.S. (13 Wall.) 581 (1871)