It is thus evident that all indicators–text, companion provisions, and legislative history–point unwaveringly to
§ 1985(3)'s coverage of private conspiracies. That the statute was meant to reach private action does not, however, mean that it was intended to apply to all tortious, conspiratorial interferences with the rights of others. For, though the supporters of the legislation insisted on coverage of private conspiracies, they were equally the words of Representative Cook, emphatic that they did not believe, in “that Congress has a right to punish an assault and battery when committed by two or more persons within a State.” . . . The constitutional shoals that would lie in the path of interpreting
§ 1985(3) as a general federal tort law can be avoided by giving full effect to the congressional purpose–by requiring, as an element of the cause of action, the kind of invidiously discriminatory motivation stressed by the sponsors of the limiting amendment. . . . The language requiring intent to deprive of
equal protection, or
equal privileges and immunities, means that there must be some racial, or perhaps otherwise class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus behind the conspirators' action. The conspiracy, in other words, must aim at a deprivation of the equal enjoyment of rights secured by the law to all. (Emphasis in original.)
Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 101-102, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971) (footnotes omitted).