Cite as: 525 U. S. 121 (1998)
Opinion of the Court
ment g, pp. 10-11 (1977); see also id., § 766B, Comment c, at 22. This protection against third-party interference with at-will employment relations is still afforded by state law today. See W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton, & D. Owen, Prosser and Keaton on Law of Torts § 129, pp. 995-996, and n. 83 (5th ed. 1984) (citing cases). For example, the State of Georgia, where the acts underlying the complaint in this case took place, provides a cause of action against third parties for wrongful interference with employment relations. See Georgia Power Co. v. Busbin, 242 Ga. 612, 613, 250 S. E. 2d 442, 444 (1978) ("[E]ven though a person's employment contract is at will, he has a valuable contract right which may not be unlawfully interfered with by a third person"); see also Troy v. Interfinancial, Inc., 171 Ga. App. 763, 766- 769, 320 S. E. 2d 872, 877-879 (1984) (directed verdict inappropriate against defendant who procured plaintiff's termination for failure to lie at a deposition hearing).4 Thus, to the extent that the terms "injured in his person or property" in § 1985 refer to principles of tort law, see 3 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 118 (1768) (describing the universe of common-law torts as "all private wrongs, or civil injuries, which may be offered to the rights of either a man's person or his property"), we find ample support for our holding that the harm occasioned by the conspiracy here may give rise to a claim for damages under § 1985(2).
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
4 Petitioner did bring a claim for tortious interference with his employment relation against respondents in Georgia state court, but that claim was dismissed on summary judgment and the dismissal affirmed on appeal. The ultimate course of petitioner's state-law claim, however, has no bearing on whether he can state a claim for damages under § 1985(2) in federal court.
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