United States v. Harvey

Decision Date04 February 1966
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 3323.
Citation250 F. Supp. 219
PartiesUNITED STATES of America v. Fletcher HARVEY et al.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Hugh Fleischer, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., for plaintiff.

Stephen P. Dart, St. Francisville, La., for R. Harry Daniel, Sr., R. Harry Daniel, Jr., Edward I. Daniel, Jordan Truitt and Daniel and Truitt, Inc., defendants.

Leon A. Picou, St. Francisville, La., for Fletcher Harvey and Bertrand Haralson Barrow, defendants.

Fred Jackson, St. Francisville, La., for John Davis Spillman, defendant.

WEST, District Judge:

This suit is brought by the United States of America under the provisions of Title 42 U.S.C.A. Section 1971(b) and (c), and Public Law No. 89-110, 89th Congress, Section 11(b), commonly known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The United States seeks an injunction enjoining the defendants individually and all persons acting in concert with them from engaging in any acts, and specifically those herein complained of, designed to deprive Negro citizens of West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, of the voting rights secured by the above mentioned laws. More specifically, the United States alleges that the defendants, for the purpose of interfering with the rights of Negroes to vote, have "subjected and threatened to subject Negro citizens to coercive and intimidatory economic penalties, which have included:

"(a) Notice of termination and termination of sharecropping and tenant farming relationships with Negro registrants;
"(b) Notice of eviction and eviction of Negro registrants from homes held under rental agreements;
"(c) The release of Negro registrants from salaried or other remunerative positions held on farms "(d) Imposing rents on houses which were formerly occupied in connection with sharecropping or tenant farming agreements."

Defendants, while admitting that some of their tenant farmers and day laborers have been discharged, deny that the termination of employment is in any way connected with any voting activities engaged in by those affected. They deny any violation on their part of the provisions of either Title 42 U.S.C.A. Section 1971, or of Public Law No. 89-110, 89th Congress, Section 11(b). All of the defendants further urge the unconstitutionality of the laws in question on the ground that their enforcement, in this instance, would violate the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution by depriving them of their property and of the free use and exercise thereof without due process of law.

This suit was filed on December 17, 1965, at which time plaintiff's motion for the issuance of a temporary restraining order was denied and the case set for hearing on its motion for a preliminary injunction on December 23, 1965. In view of the fact that, when the hearing was held on December 23, all parties stated that they had introduced all of the evidence available to them, it was agreed that the Court would consider this hearing as a trial on the merits, and decide on this record whether or not plaintiff is entitled to the injunctive relief sought. Now, after carefully considering the record, including the exhaustive briefs filed by counsel for both sides, this Court concludes that, under the law, and for the following reasons, plaintiff cannot prevail herein.

The issues presented are several. First, does the Voting Rights Act of 1965 apply to individual action, or must it, constitutionally speaking, be limited in its application to state action; second, can the Voting Rights Act of 1965, without running afoul of the United States Constitution, be so construed and applied as to prevent a private individual from evicting tenants from his privately owned property for whatever reason he may wish to do so; and third, if it be held that the Voting Rights Act can be so construed and applied, does the evidence in this case justify a holding that these particular defendants are in violation of Section 11(b) of that Act.

The United States seeks injunctive relief on the ground that the action of the defendants, in evicting certain tenants from their properties, constitutes a violation of Title 42 U.S.C.A. Section 1971(b), and Section 11(b) of Public Law 89-110, 89th Congress, commonly known as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Section 42 U.S.C.A. § 1971(b) provides:

"(b) No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, 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 or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President, Vice President, presidential elector, Member of the Senate, or Member of the House of Representatives, Delegates or Commissioners from the Territories or possessions, at any general, special, or primary election held solely or in part for the purpose of selecting or electing any such candidate."

Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 provides:

"No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for exercising any powers or duties under Section 3(a), 6, 8, 9, 10, or 12(e)."

The first question to be decided is whether or not these quoted provisions of federal law can be so construed as to prohibit purely individual acts of discrimination as distinguished from state action amounting to discrimination. If they purport to prohibit individual discriminatory acts, we must decide whether or not the prohibition contained in the Voting Rights Act is directed to the right to vote in state and local elections as well as in federal elections, and, if so, whether or not such a prohibition is within the power of Congress to decree. Since the specific provisions of 42 U.S. C.A. Section 1971(b), relied on herein by plaintiff are so similar in effect to the provisions of the Voting Rights Act relied upon, a determination of the validity of petitioner's contentions under the latter will suffice in determining the issues presented in this case.

The very title of the Voting Rights Act itself leaves no doubt but that this Act was passed by Congress under its assumption that its authority to do so was contained in the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Act is entitled "To Enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes." In addition thereto, reference to the Act itself clearly shows by its repeated reference to the Fifteenth Amendment that that Amendment is considered to be the source of congressional power to enact this legislation. It is repeatedly stated throughout the Act that its purpose is "to enforce the guarantees of the Fifteenth Amendment."

The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides:

"Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
"Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

It has been repeatedly, consistently, and unequivocally held that the prohibition contained in the Fifteenth Amendment is directed solely at action "by the United States or by any State" and not at action by the individual. James v. Bowman, 190 U.S. 127, 23 S.Ct. 678, 47 L.Ed. 979 (1903); Brawner v. Irvin, 169 F. 964 (N.D.Ga.1909); Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461, 73 S.Ct. 809, 97 L.Ed. 1152, rehearing denied, 345 U.S. 1003, 73 S. Ct. 1128, 97 L.Ed. 1408 (1953); United States v. Amsden, 6 F. 819 (D.C.Ind. 1881); United States v. Morris, 125 F. 322 (E.D.Ark.1903); Karem v. United States, 121 F. 250, 61 L.R.A. 437, (C.A. 6, 1903); Hawkins v. North Carolina Dental Society, 230 F.Supp. 805 (W.D. N.C.1964); and Paynes v. Lee, 239 F. Supp. 1019 (E.D.La.1965).

In James v. Bowman, supra, the United States Supreme Court was considering the constitutionality of an act of Congress, U.S.Rev.Stat. § 5507 (U.S.Comp. Stat.1901, p. 3712), which provided:

"Sec. 5507. Every person who prevents, hinders, controls, or intimidates another from exercising, or in exercising the right of suffrage, to whom that right is guaranteed by the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, by means of bribery or threats of depriving such person of employment or occupation, or of ejecting such person from a rented house, lands, or other property, or by threats of refusing to renew leases or contracts for labor, or by threats of violence to himself or family, shall be punished as provided in the preceding section."

In the course of its opinion, the United States Supreme Court said:

"The single question presented for our consideration is whether § 5507 can be upheld as a valid enactment, for, if not, the indictment must also fall, and the defendant was rightfully discharged. On its face the section purports to be an exercise of the power granted to Congress by the 15th Amendment, for it declares a punishment upon anyone who, by means of bribery, prevents another to whom the right of suffrage is guaranteed by such amendment from exercising that right. But that amendment relates solely to action `by the United States or by any state,' and does not contemplate wrongful individual acts."

Then, after analogizing the Fifteenth Amendment to the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court said:

"But we are not left alone to this reasoning from analogy. The 15th Amendment itself has been considered by this court, and the same limitations placed upon its provisions. In United States v. Reese, 92
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2 cases
  • Nipper v. Smith
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
    • 2 Diciembre 1994
    ...conduct of private individuals in all elections; however, the constitutionality of this section is questionable. See United States v. Harvey, 250 F.Supp. 219 (D.C.La.1966) (holding that the section is unconstitutional as applied to private individuals in nonfederal elections in light of Sup......
  • United States v. Simms
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Western District of Louisiana
    • 10 Diciembre 1979
    ...power. See: Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, 1 Wheat. 304, 14 U.S. 304, 4 L.Ed. 97 (1816). Defendant cites this Court to United States v. Harvey, 250 F.Supp. 219 (E.D. La. 1965), for authority that Congress is powerless to punish individual action as it relates to state elections. In that case, t......
2 books & journal articles
  • Jordon T. Stringer, Criminalizing Voter Suppression: the Necessity of Restoring Legitimacy in Federal Elections and Reversing Disillusionment in Minority Communities
    • United States
    • Emory University School of Law Emory Law Journal No. 57-4, 2008
    • Invalid date
    ...UNION, supra note 76. 80 Id. 81 U.S. DEP'T OF JUSTICE, supra note 41. 82 Swirsky, supra note 12, at 371. 83 United States v. Harvey, 250 F. Supp. 219, 226 (E.D. La. 1966). 84 United States v. Edwards, 333 F.2d 575, 579 (5th Cir. 1964). 85 Id. 86 Id. 87 Swirsky, supra note 12, at 372 (citing......
  • THE ANTI-TENANCY DOCTRINE.
    • United States
    • University of Pennsylvania Law Review Vol. 171 No. 2, January 2023
    • 1 Enero 2023
    ...eviction by their white landlords "for the purpose of interfering with their rights of registering and voting"), with U.S. v. Harvey, 250 F. Supp. 219, 228-29 (E.D. La. 1966) (rejecting Black sharecroppers' claims that they were evicted for registering to vote in part because "[t]he right o......

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