Question: What do you need to show to prove a conspiracy to violate someone civil rights?
Answer: There are 4 elements. If 2 or more persons in any State conspire for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws … the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators. The 4 elements are required to establish a valid case under § 1985(3):
(1) a conspiracy; (2) a purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons if the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws; (3) an act in furtherance of the conspiracy; and (4) an injury to his person or property or a deprivation of any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States.
However, these claims can be barred by the intracorporate conspiracy doctrine. Under this doctrine, “an agreement between or among agents of the same legal entity, when the agents act in their official capacities, is not an unlawful conspiracy. The rationale for this principle is that when two agents of the same legal entity make an agreement in the course of their official duties, … their acts are attributed to their principal and there has not been an agreement between two or more separate people.