Its lawyers contend that the law does not punish speech at all, but discriminatory conduct, specifically, the act of selecting crime victims for bigoted reasons.

But the Court has nonetheless upheld affirmative action to alleviate a "manifest imbalance" in a work force and to remedy an employer's past discriminatory conduct.

Sections 1981 and 1982 provide a remedy for discriminatory conduct in many situations where no other Federal statute operates.

Such egregious discriminatory conduct was "unquestionably a violation of the 14th Amendment."

The law prohibits "discriminatory conduct," and it prohibits the illegal use of Government equipment and buildings.

During this early period there were a number legal cases arising from discriminatory or repressive conduct.

As Section 1981 was used increasingly in employment cases, lower Federal courts were asked to decide what type of discriminatory conduct it applied to.

Roberts chose to distinguish the present case from Montana by focusing on the land sale instead of the alleged discriminatory conduct by the bank.

Under the Court's analysis today, the law will apply to cases in which discriminatory conduct is said to have occurred after Nov. 21, 1991.

However, the language and purpose of the 14th Amendment place certain limitations on the manner in which Congress may attack discriminatory conduct.