[5][6][7] The legislative intent of the statute was aimed towards election offenses which interfered with the exercise of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
The Supreme Court would later note in United States v. Price (1966) that it was "hardly conceivable that Congress intended §241 to apply only to a narrow and relatively unimportant category of rights.
"[8]: 486–487 Convictions under §241 require that the government demonstrates that the defendant conspired to violate a constitutionally or federally protected right.
[13]: 1 Charges of conspiracy against rights were formerly shaped by the statute's legislative intent and limited via Supreme Court decisions, such as in U.S. v. Cruikshank (1876).
[5][6][8]: 487 The Supreme Court determined in Cruikshank that the rights covered by the statute did not include those arising from natural law.
[3]: 919 Use of the statute expanded in the 20th century, and §241 is now a key component of civil rights enforcement and has been used in prosecutions of law enforcement misconduct, hate crimes, and witness tampering, as well as in prosecutions of human trafficking prior to the adoption of human trafficking conspiracy statutes.