Smith v. Paris
| Decision Date | 18 December 1967 |
| Docket Number | No. 24250.,24250. |
| Citation | 386 F.2d 979 |
| Parties | Mary C. SMITH et al., Appellants, v. T. W. PARIS et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Fred D. Gray, Montgomery, Ala., Henry M. Aronson, Charles H. Jones, Jr., Jack Greenberg, Charles Stephen Ralston, Conrad K. Harper, New York City, for appellants.
Preston C. Clayton, Eufaula, Ala., for appellees.
Before RIVES, GOLDBERG and DYER, Circuit Judges.
Upon consideration, we find ouselves in full agreement with the opinion and judgment of the district court reported in 257 F.Supp. 901, et seq., with one modification.
The applicable State statute provides:
Ala.Code, Tit. 17, § 342.
There appears to be no law prescribing the terms of office of such committee members. The appellants' brief states that, "Since elections to the Executive Committee are spaced four years apart (Deposition of T. W. Paris, 26, 27), absent a special election, the next election will not take place until 1970." The appellees respond: "The statement on page 11 of Appellants' brief, `new elections in Barbour County for Committeemen will not take place until 1970,' is not supported by the evidence, which will be apparent from a careful reading of the deposition of T. W. Parish (sic) on pages 26 & 27." We find nothing in the evidence from which to determine whether elections to the Barbour County Democratic Executive Committee are spaced four years apart or two years apart.
Beginning in 1940, regular primary elections are held in Alabama on the first Tuesday in May every two years. Code of Ala.1940, Tit. 17, § 340. There is no reason to delay beyond 1968 the relief to which the district court held the plaintiffs (appellants) entitled. See Watson v. City of Memphis, 1963, 373 U.S. 526, 532, 533, 83 S.Ct. 1314, 10 L.Ed.2d 529. To remove any uncertainty, there is added to the judgment of the district court the following: "The present terms of...
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Castorena v. City of Los Angeles
...to rural wards to reduce the urban-suburban influence; (3) Smith v. Paris (M.D.Ala.N.D.1966), 257 F.Supp. 901, 903, mod. and aff'd. 386 F.2d 979, in which the former procedure for electing county Democratic committee members on a 'beat' or district basis, was changed to an at-large basis, t......
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...Fourteenth Amendment rights. Sims v. Baggett, 247 F.Supp. 96 (MD Ala. 1965); Smith v. Paris, 257 F.Supp. 901 (MD Ala. 1966), aff'd, 386 F.2d 979 (CA5 1967); and see Gomillion v. Lighfoot, 364 U.S. 339, 81 S.Ct. 125, 5 L.Ed.2d 110 (1960). See also Allen v. State Board of Elections, 393 U.S. ......
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