## Facts

- Sean Allen and co-defendants, described as white supremacists, went at night to a city park in Billings, Montana, intending to drive away racial and religious minorities.
- The group armed themselves with bats and other weapons.
- They confronted three park users (a Hispanic woman, a Black man, and a Hispanic man), surrounded them, shouted racial epithets, and threatened them.
- The victims fled the park in fear, ending their use of the park.
- Federal prosecutors charged defendants with conspiracy to interfere with civil rights under 18 U.S.C. § 241 and interference by force or threat of force with use of a public facility because of race under 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(2)(B).
- A jury convicted the defendants; they appealed on constitutional, statutory-interpretation, evidentiary, and instructional grounds.

## Issues

1. Whether 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(2)(B), as applied to private actors who use racially motivated threats to interfere with use of a city park, exceeds Congress’s constitutional authority.
2. Whether a city-owned park qualifies as a “public facility” covered by § 245(b)(2)(B).
3. Whether the evidence was sufficient to prove the victims were engaged in protected use of the facility and that defendants acted “because of” race (and perceived religion).

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the convictions and upheld § 245(b)(2)(B) as applied.
- The court held Congress could reach the charged conduct under the Thirteenth Amendment’s power to eliminate badges and incidents of slavery and under § 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
- It concluded a city park is a “public facility” provided or administered by local government within the statute.
- It found sufficient evidence that defendants used force or threats motivated by race to interfere with the victims’ enjoyment of the park.
- The court rejected additional challenges, including vagueness, overbreadth, and claimed evidentiary or instructional error.

## Legal Principles

- Congress may criminalize private, racially motivated intimidation that interferes with equal access to public facilities under its Thirteenth Amendment enforcement power to eradicate badges and incidents of slavery.
- Under Fourteenth Amendment § 5, Congress may enact targeted remedial legislation to deter or remedy equal-protection harms tied to access to state or local public facilities, provided the remedy is congruent and proportional to the harm addressed.
- A municipally owned and maintained park is a “public facility” for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(2)(B).
- Evidence of armed intimidation, racial slurs, and conduct designed to drive minorities away can support a jury finding that interference occurred “because of” race and by force or threat of force.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit affirmed federal civil-rights convictions arising from racially motivated threats that drove minorities from a city park, holding that § 245(b)(2)(B) constitutionally reaches private interference with use of local public facilities and that the statutory elements were supported by the trial evidence.


United States v. Allen, 341 F.3d 870 (9th Cir. 2003)