Meredith v. Fair

• Decision Date: 12 February 1962
• Docket Number: No. 19475.,19475.
• Parties: James H. MEREDITH, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, Appellant, v. Charles Dickson FAIR, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning, et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

305 F.2d 341 (1962)

James H. MEREDITH, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated, Appellant, v. Charles Dickson FAIR, President of the Board of Trustees of the State Institutions of Higher Learning, et al., Appellees.

No. 19475.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

February 12, 1962.

C. B. Motley, New York City, R. Jess Brown, Vicksburg, Miss. (Jack Greenberg and Derrick A. Bell, Jr., New York City, on the brief), for appellant.

Chas. Clark, Dugas Shands, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, and Edward L. Cates, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, for appellees.

Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, and RIVES and WISDOM, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Pursuant to the provisions of Title 28 U.S.Code § 1651¹ and Rule 62(g), F.R. Civ.P., 28 U.S.C.A.,² the appellant moves the Court for an injunction during the pendency of this appeal, enjoining the appellees from refusing to admit appellant to the Liberal Arts College of the University of Mississippi for the semester which commenced February 6, 1962, and as to which admissions can be received no later than February 15, 1962, on the ground that such injunction is necessary in aid of this Court's jurisdiction of this appeal which, according to appellant, would otherwise be defeated through mootness of this appeal.

The district court's judgment was entered on February 5, 1962, and the testimony taken before the district court is not yet available to this Court. Hearing on the motion for injunction pending appeal was had before this Court on Saturday, February 10, 1962.

The ground upon which appellant claims that this appeal will become moot before it can be heard and decided in normal course is that, prior to such time, the appellant will graduate from Jackson State College, and will then lose any right to be admitted to the Liberal Arts College of the University of Mississippi. The appellees point out that it is within the appellant's power to avoid that result by his non-attendance on Jackson State College for one quarter of a school year.³ The appellees insist, and assure this Court, that such non-attendance would not prejudice the appellant's claim to a right to be admitted to the Liberal Arts College of the University of Mississippi.

While we appreciate the hardship which such non-attendance may impose on the appellant, when that hardship is balanced against other possible irreparable damages which might be suffered by the appellant himself and by the appellees from the issuance of the mandatory injunction prayed in the event that the judgment of the district court should ultimately be affirmed, such hardship is not sufficient to permit us to issue the mandatory injunction prayed without an opportunity to study the full record and testimony on the hearing before the district court. At this time we express no views on the merits of this appeal.

By expediting the hearing of this appeal, it can be decided on its merits before the beginning of the next college term. The Clerk of this Court and the parties are therefore directed to take all necessary and proper steps to expedite the hearing of this appeal on its merits, and the motion for injunction pending appeal is denied. The Clerk is directed to issue the mandate forthwith.

TUTTLE, Chief Judge.

I respectfully dissent.

I think the record already submitted, without the benefit of the record in the trial on the merits, calls for our granting the injunction pending appeal.

Undisputed facts, of which we have already taken cognizance when this case was here on appeal from denial of an interlocutory injunction show that the appellant was denied admission on the stated grounds: (1) that he had failed to furnish recommendations from six alumni of the University; (2) that the University policy (adopted after Meredith originally applied for transfer) prevented a transfer from an unaccredited institution (Jackson State College was at that time unaccredited); ...