Hughes v. Wmca, Inc Davis v. Mann, 623

• Decision Date: 01 February 1965
• Docket Number: No. 718,No. 623,623,718
• Citation: 13 L.Ed.2d 698,85 S.Ct. 713,379 U.S. 694
• Parties: John H. HUGHES et al. v. WMCA, INC., et al. Levin Nock DAVIS, Secretary, State Board of Elections, et al. v. Harrison MANN et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

379 U.S. 694

85 S.Ct. 713

13 L.Ed.2d 698

John H. HUGHES et al.

v WMCA, INC., et al.

No. 623.

Levin Nock DAVIS, Secretary, State Board of

Elections, et al.

v Harrison MANN et al.

No. 718.

Supreme Court of the United States

February 1, 1965

John H. Hughes, pro se.

Robert Y. Button, Atty. Gen. of Virginia, R. D. McIlwaine III, Asst. Atty. Gen., David J. Mays and Henry T. Wickham, for appellants Davis and others.

Edmund D. Campbell and E. A. Prichard, for appellees Mann and others.

Henry E. Howell, Jr., Leonard B. Sachs and Sidney H. Kelsey, for appellees Glanville and others.

Leonard B. Sand, Max Gross, Leo A. Larkin, Jack B. Weinstein and Robert B. McKay, for appellees WMCA, Inc., and others.

PER CURIAM.

The motions to affirm are granted and the judgments are affirmed.

Mr. Justice HARLAN, whom Mr. Justice CLARK joins, dissenting.

Both of these cases, today affirmed summarily by the Court, raise serious problems concerning the scope of the discretion of a federal court to fashion interim relief in state reapportionment cases, matters not hitherto decided by this Court.

No. 623.

The New York Constitution, Art. III, § 2, provides that the State Legislature will be elected every two years, serving for two annual sessions. Between sessions the Legislature normally works in committee, conducting hearings and drafting reports to be submitted at the following session. In WMCA, Inc. v. Lomenzo, 377 U.S. 633, 84 S.Ct. 1418, 12 L.Ed.2d 568, this Court held the New York legislative apportionment formula invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment, and remanded the cause to the District Court for appropriate relief. Among other things, the Court authorized the District Court in its discretion to permit the November 1964 elections to proceed under the invalidated apportionment 'in order to give the New York Legislature an opportunity to fashion a constitutionally valid legislative apportionment plan * * *.' 377 U.S., at 655, 84 S.Ct., at 1429.

Mr. Justice WHITE and Mr. Justice GOLDBERG join the affirmance in No. 623 since it is their understanding that it in no way interferes with the power of the District Court, in the light of circumstances as they may develop, to vacate or otherwise modify its order requiring an election in the fall of 1965.

The District Court, on July 27, 1964, entered a decree permitting the November 1964 elections to be conducted under the invalidated plan, but limiting the term of the Legislature to one year. The decree also ordered that an election be held in November 1965 under a valid apportionment plan, to be enacted by the Legislature by April 1, 1965,^* and that the Legislature elected in 1965 would also serve for only one year so that the November 1966 election would be held as scheduled by state law. As a result of this order New York will have to conduct three elections in as many years, and forgo the normal work of the...