United States v. State of Mississippi, Civ. A. No. 3312.

• Decision Date: 22 June 1964
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 3312.
• Citation: 229 F. Supp. 925
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi

229 F. Supp. 925

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. STATE OF MISSISSIPPI et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 3312.

United States District Court S. D. Mississippi, Jackson Division.

March 6, 1964.

Dissenting Opinion March 23, 1964.

Concurring Opinion April 9, 1964.

Probable Jurisdiction Noted June 22, 1964.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert F. Kennedy, Atty. Gen. of the U. S., Robert E. Hauberg, U. S. Atty., Jackson, Miss., John Doar, Washington, D. C., for the United States.

T. F. Badon, Joe D. Gordon, Liberty, Miss., Joseph Drake, Port Gibson, Miss., Semmes Luckett, Leon Porter, Jr., Chester Curtis, Clarksdale, Miss., Aubrey Bell, Hardy Lott, Greenwood, Miss., J. O. Sams, Jr., William Burgin, Jr., W. H. Jolly, Columbus, Miss., B. D. Statham, Magnolia, Miss., Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Dugas Shands, Asst. Atty. Gen. of Mississippi, Charles Clark, Jackson, Miss., for defendants.

Before CAMERON and BROWN, Circuit Judges, and COX, District Judge.

Probable Jurisdiction Noted June 22, 1964. See 84 S.Ct. 1920.

CAMERON, Circuit Judge:

In this action, the "Indestructible Union" member of the partnership which constitutes the government of this country makes a frontal attack upon the other member, the "Indestructible State" of Mississippi, seeking to enjoin the enforcement of certain laws of the State defining the qualifications of the "electors" who shall vote in elections for president and vice president of the United States and members of the Congress. The State of Mississippi and its people have, in the Constitution of 1890 and thereafter, enacted constitutional and statutory provisions covering the whole field of choosing of such "electors". The United States seeks to strike down some of these enactments upon the claim that they violate the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution, in that they deny certain rights to Negroes because of their race, color or previous condition of servitude. We hold that, from the face of the pleadings, the effort to strike them down may not succeed.¹

I.

The United States of America filed a complaint invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under the provisions of 42 U.S.C. § 1971(d),² 28 U.S.C. § 1345,³ and 28 U.S.C. § 2281.⁴ The State of Mississippi was joined as a party defendant pursuant to § 601(b) of the Civil Rights Act of 1960.⁵ The other defendants are the three members of the Miss. State Board of Election Commissioners, and six county registrars of voters (the regularly elected Circuit Clerks of their respective counties).

The complaint is filed under the authority of 42 U.S.C. § 1971(a)-(c).⁶ It attacks the validity of the Mississippi Constitution and statutes which govern registration for voting. It contains four claims. In the plaintiff's words, these claims are described as follows:

"The first claim of the Complaint attacks the validity of Section 244 of the Mississippi Constitution, adopted in 1955 and used since that time by registrars throughout Mississippi, which provides as a prerequisite for registrations that persons must read and write and give a reasonable interpretation of any section of the Mississippi Constitution and a statement of the duties and obligations of citizenship to the local county registrar on a form provided by the State Board of Election Commissioners. The Complaint attacks Section 244 and its implementing legislation on the following grounds:

"1. Section 244 vests unlimited discretion in the registrar and in light of its setting of white political supremacy and a racially segregated society it is an unconstitutional device to disfranchise Negroes;

"2. Section 244 imposes new and more stringent requirements for registration following a long period of racial discrimination in the registration process, and exempts from the new requirement most of the white citizens, the inevitable effect of which is to perpetuate past discrimination;

"3. In a State where public educational facilities are and have been racially segregated and those for Negroes are inferior, the interpretation test which bears a direct relation to the quality of public education violates the Fifteenth Amendment;

"4. Section 244 is vague and provides no objective standards for its administration;

"5. There is no reasonable or legitimate interest on the part of the State in requiring as a prerequisite for voting that citizens interpret certain of the legal and hyper-technical provisions of the Mississippi Constitution.

"The second claim of the Complaint attacks Section 241-A of the Mississippi Constitution enacted in 1960 which provides that applicants for registration shall be of good moral character. The Complaint alleges that this constitutional provision is invalid because, since registration is permanent, it exempts most of the white citizens in Mississippi from its requirements. It also provides no objective reference by which the county registrar may determine good moral character and thus is so vague and indefinite as to permit registrars to arbitrarily reject Negro applicants.

"The third claim attacks the validity of a Mississippi statute enacted in 1960 which permits registrars to destroy registration records. In 1960 Congress enacted Title III of the Civil Rights Act requiring county registrars to retain and preserve the very records which under Mississippi law are permitted to be destroyed.

"The fourth claim in the Complaint attacks a package of legislation adopted by the Mississippi legislature shortly after the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an injunction on April 10, 1962 forbidding the registrar in Forrest County, Mississippi, from engaging in discriminatory practices in registration for voting. This legislative package included House Bills 900, 903, 822, 904 Laws 1962, cc. 570, 571, 572, 573. H.B. 900 requires that applicants for registration complete a letter-perfect application form without assistance in order to qualify to register. H.B. 903 prevents registrars from advising applicants for registration as to the reason such applicant was rejected, because such would constitute assistance to the applicant. H.B. 822 and 904 provide for publication of the names of applicants for registration, require an applicant to wait an extended period even before he determines whether he is registered or denied registration, and permit any qualified elector to challenge the qualifications of any applicant whose name is published. This package of legislation is attacked as arbitrary and unreasonable. It exempts from its provisions most of the white citizens because they are presently registered to vote and its unquestioned effect is to impose more burdensome and stringent requirements for registration on persons not registered prior to 1962. The legislation as with the other laws under attack provides no objective standards for its administration.

"The relief requested by the United States is a declaration of the invalidity of Sections 244 and 241-A of the Mississippi Constitution and the implementing legislation of both provisions, the records destruction legislation, and four bills in the package of legislation enacted in 1962. An injunction vitiating the effects of the invalid Mississippi laws and practices thereunder is requested. Actually the complaint prays for a mandatory injunction setting up court created state voter registration qualifications for Negroes only and requiring the defendants to use such qualifications in registering Negroes who may apply after the date of such an order. Plaintiff also requests the court to find that the use of the invalid legislation has deprived Negro citizens of the right to vote on account of their race and that the deprivations have been pursuant to a pattern and practice of racial discrimination. This finding is sought to set in motion 42 U.S.C. 1971(e) of the Civil Rights Act of 1960."

II.

Each defendant has moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a claim on which relief could be granted and the defendant Registrars of voters who are non-residents of this district have moved to dismiss for want of venue jurisdiction; the defendant Registrar of Claiborne County has moved for dismissal or for transfer to the division having venue jurisdiction of her county. Each defendant Registrar has also moved for a severance and separate trial. No supporting or counter affidavits were or have been filed. Answers have been filed by all defendants.

III.

It is elementary that in ruling on the motions to dismiss, the Court must treat them substantially as demurrers testing the legal sufficiency of the complaint. The Court must assume all of the complaint's well-pleaded facts, as distinguished from conclusions, deductions and averments of law, as established for the purpose of the motion.⁷ Neither the answers of the defendants nor any part of the discovery procedures should be considered.⁸

IV.

The Complaint further alleges the following as facts: All registrars of voters in the State of Mississippi since at least 1892 have been white citizens. In the counties of the defendant registrars, the statistics on voting age population of Negro and white persons and the approximate voter registration of each race are as follows:

                                     WHITE                     NEGRO      
                              Voting Age Registration   Voting Age Registration
                              Population                Population
                Amite            4449        3295         2560           1
                Coahoma          8708        8376        14604        1371
                Claiborne        1688        1440         3969         138
                Lowndes          16460       5869         8362          63
                LeFlore          10274       9803        13567         258
                Pike             12163       9989         6936         124
                

At the time of the adoption of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 there were substantially more Negroes than whites in Mississippi. By 1899, approximately 122,000 or 82% of the white males of voting age...