United States v. Bruce
| Decision Date | 16 November 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 22028.,22028. |
| Citation | 353 F.2d 474 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. W. Henderson BRUCE et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Harold H. Greene, Gerald P. Choppin, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Vernol R. Jansen, Jr., U. S. Atty., Mobile, Ala., Louis M. Kauder, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., John Doar, Acting Asst. Atty. Gen., David Rubin, Bernard J. Haugen, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for appellant.
J. E. Wilkinson, Jr., W. McLean Pitts, Selma, Ala., for appellees.
Before TUTTLE, Chief Judge, and RIVES and GEWIN, Circuit Judges.
One of the provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 says that "no person shall intimidate, threaten, coerce or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote * * *"1
A further provision of this Act authorizes the Attorney General of the United States to institute, in the name of the United States, a civil action seeking to enjoin a violation of the law in this respect.
The United States, by its complaint, filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Alabama, made certain specific allegations respecting conduct of the named defendants and then asserted, "The defendants have threatened, intimidated, and coerced, and have attempted to threaten, intimidate, and coerce Negro citizens of Wilcox County, Alabama, for the purpose of interfering with the right of Negroes to register and to vote." It further alleged that, unless restrained by order of the court, the defendants would continue to engage in the same or similar acts and by such conduct continue to "intimidate, threaten and coerce Negro citizens for the purpose of preventing, discouraging and interfering with attempts by such Negro citizens to exercise their right to register and vote."
The background allegations upon which the government's conclusionary allegation of threats, intimidation and coercion, were apparently sought to be based, included the following:
(1) Under Alabama law registration is a prerequisite for voting.
(2) In Wilcox County, Alabama, there are approximately 2624 white persons and 6085 Negroes of voting age. No Negro is registered to vote in Wilcox County. Approximately 95% of the white persons of voting age are so registered.
(3) Prior to April 1, 1963, no Negro had applied for registration to vote in Wilcox County for more than 50 years.
(4) Lonnie Brown, a Negro, who was born and had lived his entire life in Wilcox County, except for a period of service in the Army of the United States, began in February, 1963, to urge his Negro neighbors and friends to seek to register and vote. He was active in this regard for several months, and attempted, together with his wife and others, to register; he was rebuffed on the ground that registrars required that any applicant for registration must have his application supported by a witness who was presently registered in Wilcox County (a requirement which the Federal courts have since invalidated).
(5) Brown's activities continued both in Wilcox County and in Selma, Alabama, a neighboring county, and such activities were widely publicized.
(6) Lonnie Brown was an insurance collector, many of whose policyholders resided on property owned or controlled by the defendants.
(7) About May 20, 1963, Lonnie Brown was ordered by James Strother, a white person who owns land in Wilcox County, to stay off land owned by the Strother brothers; on May 27, 1963, while Brown was making an insurance premium collection as a part of his work, defendant George Findley, Jr., a white person who owns land in Wilcox County, warned Brown to stay off of his land; on May 30, 1963, Brown received, by registered mail, an envelope containing four letters signed by the 28 defendants. These letters notified Lonnie Brown to stay off of land owned or controlled by them; as a result of this action by the defendants Lonnie Brown was not able to reach many of the policyholders from whom he had to collect insurance premiums. As a result of this action, Brown had to leave Wilcox County and to work for the company that employed him in another area of the state, away from his home county.
The trial court dismissed this complaint and the United States appeals.
We need not decide whether under the liberal rules of notice pleading of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the government's complaint should have withstood a motion to dismiss for a failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted if it contained only the conclusionary paragraphs, cf. Santiesteban v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 5 Cir., (1962), 306 F.2d 9, and Millet v. Godchaux Sugars, Inc., 5 Cir., (1957), 241 F.2d 264, for this complaint alleges much more. It not only alleges that the...
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...Smith & Son, Inc. v. Williams, 275 F.2d 397 (5 Cir. 1960). 9 A similar prohibition is found in 42 U.S. C.A. § 1971(b). United States v. Bruce, 353 F.2d 474 (5 Cir. 1965). Unlike 42 U.S.C.A. § 1971(b), section 1973i(b) does not require that the prohibited acts be racially motivated; nor does......
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