Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution provides that:

***All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.***

As per the Fourteenth Amendment, the state cannot make or enforce any law which violates a citizen’s privileges or immunities.  Further, the state cannot deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.  No person can be denied equal protection of the laws.  In enforcing by appropriate legislation the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees against state denials.  Congress has the discretion to adopt remedial measures. Such remedial measures include the right to provide criminal and civil liability violation of protected rights.

18 U.S.C. § 245 (Crimes and Criminal Procedure), makes it unlawful to willfully injure, intimidate or interfere with any person, or to attempt to do so, by force or threat of force, because of that other person’s race, color, religion or national origin and because of his/her activity as a traveler or user of a facility of interstate commerce or common carrier.

49 C.F.R. § 374.101 (Passenger Carrier Regulations), prohibits a common carrier from operating a motor vehicle in interstate or foreign commerce in which the seating is based on race, color, creed or national origin.

49 C.F.R. § 374.103 (Passenger Carrier Regulations), provides that the common carrier should print the following legible notice on all tickets sold: “Seating aboard vehicles operated in interstate or foreign commerce is without regard to race, color, creed, or national origin.’’