Cohen v. Mississippi State University of Agriculture & Applied Science

256 F. Supp. 954, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6576
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedJuly 15, 1966
DocketCiv. A. EC-6645
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 256 F. Supp. 954 (Cohen v. Mississippi State University of Agriculture & Applied Science) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cohen v. Mississippi State University of Agriculture & Applied Science, 256 F. Supp. 954, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6576 (N.D. Miss. 1966).

Opinion

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge:

This suit, heard by a three-judge court, brought under 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1332, 1343 (3) and (4) and 2201 and 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1983, 1985 and 1988, challenges the constitutionality of § 6726.7 of the Mississippi Code of 1942, both under the Federal and State Constitutions. This statute authorizes the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning to enact traffic rules and regulations for the control and direction of parking and traffic on the campuses of State Institutions of Higher Learning. 1 The viola *955 tions of rules or regulations promulgated thereunder are to constitute a misdemeanor for prosecution in the Justice of the Peace Court. The principal attack is that this is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative powers and, as a corollary, if delegation were permissible generally, the enabling statute is too vague and does not prescribe adequate legislative standards. We uphold the validity of the statute and deny the relief sought. 2

As the case comes to us, it is virtually without any factual controversy. By commendable close collaboration of counsel under the pretrial supervision of the Court, the parties, by pleading and stipulation, have eliminated all significant factual issues and have narrowed the legal issue to the single one of the constitutionality of § 6726.7 (and to a limited extent the 1954 regulations promulgated thereunder). The facts, therefore, are not complex or conflicting.

Plaintiff is a white, male, full-time student at Mississippi State University of Agriculture and Applied Science (MSU) at State College, Mississippi. Claiming that there are common questions of law and fact, he brings this action on his own behalf and on behalf of all other students and personnel at MSU. The institution, MSU, was created by the Act of February 28,1878. Besides MSU, other officers and officials of the institution, the Board of Trustees, and certain representatives of student organizations are made parties defendant. 3

The Plaintiff, at least in the eyes of the traffic security authorities, is a persistent violator of parking regulations on the campus. Directly at the heart of this controversy is the action taken by MSU *956 with respect to the ten violations occurring between March 21,1966 and May 13, 1966. 4 These traffic tickets were issued by authorized campus traffic officers purportedly under § 6726.7 (note 1, supra), and the regulations enacted by the Board of Trustees September 16, 1954, 5 plus certain revisions of 1958 and supplements thereto which MSU undertook to put into effect. The 1954 regulations prescribed a number of standards for the use and operation of automobiles on the campus including registration of vehicles, speed limits, prohibition of reckless driving, driving under influence of alcohol or drugs, parking, driving with cutouts, excessive use of horns, compliance with stop signs, traffic routing signs, lights, and the like. Of importance here, these regulations did not prescribe any form of University administrative sanctions or University administrative procedure for the enforcement of fines or other penalties. Rather, the sole sanction was to be a charge brought in the Justice of the Peace Court for prosecution as a misdemeanor with a prescribed maximum fine, imprisonment, or both. 6

In 1958 MSU, without any prior or subsequent ratification by the Board of Trustees, undertook to modify the 1954 regulations extensively. These were published in the student paper, the Reflector, but not otherwise. The marked difference between the 1954 and 1958 regulations was the introduction of a series of institutional administrative sanctions and enforcement procedures which, the Plaintiffs claimed, had the effect of putting a premium on a quick administrative “plea of guilty” and, conversely, a deterrent on the exercise of the fundamental right to deny guilt and defend. 7 By subsequent purported revisions by MSU (not the Board of Trustees) the triple route was set up under which parking violators may be processed either (1) by the uncontested payment of a fine or (2) by a hearing within MSU by either the Judicial Council or Faculty Discipline Com *957 mittee or (3) by referral to the local Justice of the Peace for criminal trial. 8

It was also admitted that the “changes since 1958” in the penalties for parking violators” are so bewildering and numerous that it is impossible to determine with certainty what those penalties are. (See also paragraph 11, Stipulation, Note 12 Infra.)

Beginning on April 1, 1966, the Plaintiff commenced his vigorous contest of the validity of the parking regulations of MSU and the tickets issued to him (and presumably those to follow in April and May), (see note 4, supra). Thus began the contentious dispute resulting in the filing of this case. His position, so well known to the MSU authorities, triggered administrative action. On May 3, 1966, Dean Hall by letter advised Plaintiff that there were five parking tickets issued during March 1966 which were unpaid. The letter plainly stated that a failure to pay the fines by 11:30 a. m. May 7, 1966, would require that his “withdrawal from the University be processed in the office of student affairs on Monday, May 9, 1966.” On May 7, 1966, Dean Aiken advised Plaintiff that a hearing before the Faculty Discipline Committee with respect to the five unpaid tickets for March 1966 was scheduled for May 11. In response to this by letter of May 9, Plaintiff through his present counsel in specific terms which paraphrased the present legal complaint, objected to the holding of the disciplinary proceedings, referral to the Justice of the Peace or other action to enforce the traffic tickets. The hearing scheduled for May 11 was postponed and so far as the record discloses no hearing was held. In the meantime, on May 14, 1966, Dean Aiken advised Plaintiff that the five unpaid tickets had been referred to the local Justice of the Peace for handling “by the state law enforcement agencies in the State courts.” This resulted in his arrest on May 16, 1966. Before the trial, scheduled for May 21, 1966, Plaintiff filed a removal petition to this Court where it pends as Criminal Action No. ECR-6660. 9

Against this background, the plaintiff made the broad charge that he was being prosecuted and threatened with prosecutions or disciplinary proceedings for violations of parking regulations, which are unconstitutional for a number of reasons. 10 The relief requested was both specific and general. 11

*958

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
256 F. Supp. 954, 1966 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohen-v-mississippi-state-university-of-agriculture-applied-science-msnd-1966.