This investigation begins to rectify the absence of scholarship on statutory protections of civil rights in northern states prior to the breakthrough federal laws of the mid-twentieth century. While there is some limited cataloging of the existence of such statutes, their subsequent import is overlooked. I tackle the question by examining state supreme court cases in which these statutes were used by plaintiffs to combat acts of private discrimination in northern states. Using West’s Decennial Digest to find all relevant claims/decisions of the first half of the twentieth century, I uncover a modest universe of 56 cases. My aim is to assess whether statutory-based claims were more likely upheld than not, and whether plaintiffs armed with these statutes were more successful than those relying solely on federal or state constitutional provisions. I report positive and significant findings for both questions, showing that these statutes mattered in judicial fora. The statistical analysis is followed by a deeper consideration of the opinions to provide a richer picture of the deference shown to these statutes by state courts, and the reluctance for judges to grant relief for private discrimination in the absence of protective statutes.

中文翻译：

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联邦权利革命之前：20 世纪上半叶北方州民权法的影响

这项调查开始纠正在 20 世纪中叶突破性的联邦法律之前，北方各州缺乏关于公民权利法定保护的学术研究。虽然对此类法规的存在进行了一些有限的编目，但它们随后的导入却被忽略了。我通过审查州最高法院案件来解决这个问题，在这些案件中，原告使用这些法规来打击北部各州的私人歧视行为。使用韦斯特的十年文摘来查找 20 世纪上半叶的所有相关主张/决定，我发现了 56 个案例的适度范围。我的目的是评估是否更有可能支持基于法规的索赔，以及拥有这些法规的原告是否比仅依赖联邦或州宪法规定的原告更成功。我报告了这两个问题的积极和重要的调查结果，表明这些法规在司法法庭上很重要。统计分析之后是对意见的更深入考虑，以更丰富地了解州法院对这些法规的尊重，以及在没有保护性法规的情况下法官不愿对私人歧视给予救济的情况。