Harris v. Louisiana State Supreme Court, Civ. A. No. 70-3227.

• Citation: 334 F. Supp. 1289
• Decision Date: 03 November 1971
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 70-3227.
• Parties: Arthur Lee HARRIS, Sr., et al. v. LOUISIANA STATE SUPREME COURT et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

334 F. Supp. 1289

Arthur Lee HARRIS, Sr., et al. v. LOUISIANA STATE SUPREME COURT et al.

Civ. A. No. 70-3227.

United States District Court, E. D. Louisiana, New Orleans Division.

November 3, 1971.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Etta Kay Hearn, Wilfret R. McKee, Baton Rouge, La., Edward Larvadain, Jr., Alexandria, La., Margrett Ford, Shreveport, La., Milton Osborne, Jr., Plaquemine, La., Joseph V. Hawkins, Baton Rouge, La., for plaintiffs.

John E. Jackson, Jr., Dorothy D. Wolbrette, New Orleans, La., Jack P. F. Gremillion, Atty. Gen. of La., Baton Rouge, La., for Louisiana Supreme Court.

M. Truman Woodward, Jr., Thomas O. Collins, Jr., New Orleans, La., for Louisiana State Bar Association.

Thomas B. Lemann, Leon Sarpy, New Orleans, La., for Louisiana State Law Institute.

Before AINSWORTH, Circuit Judge, and BOYLE and CASSIBRY, District Judges.

BOYLE, District Judge:

This matter came on for hearing before this statutory Court on motions of the various defendants. The Court took time to consider.

Plaintiffs Arthur Harris, Hickman, Dumas, Huckaby, Richard, and Rodney Williams are alleged to be black graduates of the Southern University School of Law (hereinafter SU), which is alleged to be a predominantly black institution. Plaintiffs Hearn, McKee, Hawkins, and Osborne are black graduates of the Southern School of Law, and were admitted to practice and became members of the Louisiana State Bar Association (hereinafter LSBA).¹ Plaintiffs Aaron Harris, Mouton, Scott, Jones, and Marshall are senior law students at Southern University School of Law. Additional plaintiffs are alleged to be "All other black graduates and potential graduates of Southern University School of Law, a predominantly black institution, who have taken the Louisiana Bar Examination and those who in the future will take said examination as it presently exists."

Named as defendants are the Louisiana Supreme Court (erroneously denominated the "Louisiana State Supreme Court"), the LSBA, its Board of Governors, its Committee on Bar Admissions, its Bar Admissions Advisory Committee, and the Louisiana Law Institute, incorrectly characterized in the complaint as an all-white organization.²

Jurisdiction is asserted under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(1), (2), (3), (4), 2201, 2202, 2281, and 2284, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. At the hearing, counsel for the plaintiffs emphasized that the crucial claim was under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The complaint alleges three causes of action. In their first cause of action, plaintiffs claim that the Articles of Incorporation of the LSBA, particularly Article 6, § 4, Article 7, § 1, and Article 12, §§ 1-11, have subjected plaintiffs to deprivation of due process and equal protection of the laws. Plaintiffs aver that this alleged "statute" is unconstitutional on its face in that it has deprived faculty and graduates of Southern University's School of Law of participation on certain LSBA Committees and on all committees concerned with the Bar Examination. Plaintiffs allege further that the sole purpose of this "statute," and its only intention and effect, is to (a) deprive the black community of the competent, fair, and needed assistance of black attorneys; (b) "to control the number of black lawyers who are graduating from SU and coming into the practice of law;" (c) to destroy the image of any graduate of SU by "discriminately grading their papers unfairly by all white examiners," and (d) to limit the number of black students who would otherwise pursue the study of law at said institution and thus destroy the vehicle which would produce more black lawyers than all of the other law schools in this state combined.

As a second cause of action, plaintiffs reallege the unconstitutionality, facially and as applied, of "the Act" and allege further that the Articles of Incorporation of the Louisiana State Bar Association have been used to deny to Southern and its graduates the benefits of representation on certain strategic committees of the Bar Association.

As a third cause of action, plaintiffs allege that the Louisiana Law Institute, under color of La.R.S. 24, §§ 201-208, entered into a scheme, plan or practice to systematically exclude SU, its students and faculty from representation and participation in said Institute in violation of equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.³

Finally, in a section of the complaint entitled "Damages," it is alleged that those plaintiffs who have taken the bar examination unsuccessfully one or more times under the system as it presently exists are entitled to damages in the amount of One Million Dollars for embarrassment, mental anguish, hardship and alleged economic losses.

Plaintiffs allege further that the defendants' actions have caused them irreparable injury.

Plaintiffs pray for the following relief:

1. That a three-judge court be impaneled;

2. That a declaratory judgment issue declaring unconstitutional the Articles of Incorporation of the LSBA Article 6, § 4, Article 7, § 1, and Article 12, §§ 1-11;

3. That the LSBA be enjoined from making, preparing, and administering the Louisiana State Bar Examination under the present system;

4. That costs be taxed to the defendants;

5. That all SU graduates who have taken the bar (sic) (examination) and failed, be admitted to practice forthwith in the State of Louisiana;

6. That La.R.S. 24:201-208 be declared unconstitutional;⁴

7. That damages in the amount of One Million Dollars be awarded plaintiffs, and for such other relief as may be just.

In an amended complaint, filed November 20, 1970, plaintiffs added to their jurisdictional allegation that the suit is on their own behalf and on behalf of all other black individuals who have taken or who will take the Louisiana Bar Examination as regulated by the existing Articles of Incorporation of the LSBA.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF THE LOUISIANA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION

According to its organizational statement, the Louisiana State Bar Association was organized by notarial act on March 15, 1941, before Cuthbert S. Baldwin, Notary Public in the Parish of Orleans, "by virtue and in furtherance of an order rendered by the Supreme Court of Louisiana on August 22, 1940, in the matter of the creation of the Louisiana State Bar Association, as amended by an order dated October 1, 1940, and further amended and supplemented by order dated October 17, 1940, appointing an Advisory Committee to the Supreme Court of Louisiana, who assisted in the creation of the Louisiana State Bar Association, and pursuant to a further order of the Supreme Court of Louisiana dated March 12, 1941, wherein the Supreme Court of Louisiana, acting pursuant to a memorial to it addressed by the Legislature in Act 54 of 1940, created the organization and agency of the Supreme Court known as the Louisiana State Bar Association and chartered as a non-trading corporation under the laws of the State of Louisiana, as is provided in the order. The Association was organized in pursuance of said order and under the provisions of Act 254 of 1914."⁵

The Supreme Court's order, signed March 12, 1941, provides that the LSBA was "organized under the rule-making power of the Court. The rules and regulations which shall govern it as an agency of the Court are * * * the articles of incorporation * * *. The Court hereby adopts and promulgates the articles * * * as rules of this Court."⁶

The Articles under attack by the present plaintiffs are Article VI, § 4, Article VII, § 1, and Article XII, §§ 1-11.

Article VI, § 4, concerns the duties of the committee which nominates officers of the LSBA. The section provides that the Committee shall meet with the Board of Governors and shall nominate a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary-Treasurer, a member of the Board to be elected from the Council of the Louisiana Law Institute and three members of the Board to be elected from the faculties of the Louisiana Law Schools that belong to the Association of American Law Schools (hereinafter AALS), and report such nominations to the Board of Governors. Nominations may also be made by written petition, signed by not less than twenty-five active members in good standing, addressed to the Board of Governors. This section in effect excludes Southern University's School of Law, because the school is not accredited by the AALS.⁷

Article VII, § 1 provides that the Board of Governors is vested with the administration of such of the affairs of the LSBA as are granted to it in the Articles or may be directed to it by the House of Delegates. The Board consists of the officers, the outgoing President, and, inter alia, three faculty members to be elected by the membership of the LSBA at large from the faculties of the Louisiana Law Schools accredited by the AALS.

It must be noted that there is no provision that precludes SU graduates who are members in good standing of the LSBA from participating as electors or candidates in any LSBA elections. SU's exclusion from Law School faculty positions on the Board of Governors is not based on the fact that SU is a predominantly black institution, but on the fact that it is not an accredited law school under the standards of the AALS.

Plaintiffs attack the constitutionality of Article XII in toto. Article XII creates two separate committees whose duties relate to bar admissions. Section 1 sets out the composition of the Committee on Bar Admissions. These members are appointed by the Supreme Court on the recommendation of the Board of Governors of the LSBA. There is no portion of this section excluding Southern's representation or granting representation to other law schools. On oral argument, counsel for the plaintiffs maintained that the constitutional attack on this section lies in the fact that to his knowledge the Supreme Court...