Congress of Racial Equality v. Clemmons

323 F.2d 54, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 4239
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 12, 1963
DocketNo. 19703
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 323 F.2d 54 (Congress of Racial Equality v. Clemmons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Congress of Racial Equality v. Clemmons, 323 F.2d 54, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 4239 (5th Cir. 1963).

Opinions

WISDOM, Circuit Judge.

This case presents new twists in civil rights litigation. The thrust of the holding below is that the State action here was action of the Congress of Racial Equality and Negro demonstrators. The State invokes the Fourteenth Amendment against private individuals, although the Fourteenth Amendment establishes constitutional rights in favor of private individuals and against the State. Moreover, this unusual federal action is in an area that is essentially one of State responsibility — the preservation of public order; and there is no lack of breach of peace statutes in Louisiana. The relief sought and granted in the name of the Fourteenth Amendment is a federal injunction to protect the police power of the State from private persons said to have interfered with the constitutional duty of city and parish officers to provide equal protection of the laws to all citizens. The interference consisted of a demonstration of Negro college students in front of the Courthouse in Baton Rouge, drawing to that location most of the city and parish police officers. [56]*56Implicit in the district court’s decision is the notion that when private persons interfere with a duty imposed on a State by the Fourteenth Amendment, it becomes a matter of sufficient federal concern to justify prior restraints by federal injunction. In the circumstances, a proper regard for the federal system requires that the Court scrutinize closely the question of jurisdiction and whether on the merits the case is indeed one arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States.

This action arose out of a demonstration of Negroes in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to protest the jailing of pickets who had urged a boycott of stores practicing racial discrimination. December 15, 1961, a large group of Negro students from Southern University, under the supervision of officers of the Congress of Racial Equality, marched from Scotland-ville, Louisiana, to the Courthouse in Baton Rouge, a distance of four and a half miles. The Mayor of Baton Rouge had instructed the police office to provide necessary protection to the demonstrators as long as their activities were orderly. At times the march blocked traffic, but there was no disorder. When the max-ch reached the Courthouse the crowd, marchers and Negro bystanders, numbered about 1500 to 2000. There were about 300 white men across the road from the demonstrators. All of the police officers on duty and sixty off-duty officers wex*e pressed into service. The Negroes followed orders given by the Reverend B. Elton Cox, an officer of CORE. When the marchers first arrived in the downtown area, Cox and the Chief of Police conferred. Cox said that the demonstrators wanted to congregate for seven minutes at the Courthouse, where the parish prison is located; that they would say the Oath of Allegiance, sing two songs, hear a four-minute speech, and then return to Southern University. The Chief of Police told Cox that such a demonstration was permissible as long as it was ordex-ly. The demonstration took place as planned, and without any disor-dex', until Cox urged the Negroes to go to lunch counters in twelve stores, demand service, and refuse to move for one hour. The trial judge found: “It was at this moment, according to the uncon-tradicted testimony * * * that an outbreak of physical violence was almost a certainty”; the “entire situation was ‘tense with impending violence’ and the conduct of the crowd ‘was fast approaching a mob reaction.’ ” When the demonstrators refused to move, the sheriff ordered tear gas bombs to be fired into the crowd. The streets were cleared within two minutes.

Alleging an imminent threat of further demonstrations, the mayor and law enforcement officials of Baton Rouge sought injunctive relief in the federal district court. The complaint avers that CORE, its officers and agents, and John Doe and Mary Doe and others were fomenting violence and breaches of peace in the City of Baton Rouge and were encouraging a conspiracy to violate the laws of Louisiana and of the United States. The gist of the complaint is stated in the following allegation:

“[T]he actions of these defendants and others acting in concert with them, has resxxlted in the obstruction and complete blockage of certain public streets and ways of the City of Baton Rouge, thereby denying and depriving plaintiffs and individual citizens of the State of Louisiana and of the United States of America of their civil rights, including the right to freely use the public streets and ways without interference axxd hindrance; and in addition, these acts on the part of the defendants, and others in coneex’t with them, are such as to hixxder plaintiffs in their official capacities as constituted authorities of the Parish of East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and of the State of Louisiana, and of the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from giving or securing to all persons within said State, Parish and City the equal protection of the laws, including the equal right of all the citizens to use the public ways of the City of Baton [57]*57Rouge, Parish of East Baton Rouge, State of Louisiana, in a normal, peaceful and customary manner, all of which is in violation of the provisions of Title 42, Section 1985(3) of U.S.Code Annotated.”

The plaintiffs assert jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332, the diversity statute, .and 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343, providing for jurisdiction of “any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person * * * because of the deprivation ■of any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, by any act done in ^furtherance of any conspiracy mentioned in section 1985 of Title 42 * *

The defendants, in their answer, admit the plaintiffs’ jurisdictional allegations and, in addition, invoke jurisdiction on their own behalf under 28 U.S.C.A. § 1331, the federal question statute, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983, 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981 and 28 U.S.C.A. § 2281. In a counterclaim, they urge that their activities were protected under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and ask that the plaintiffs be enjoined from interfering with their ■constitutional rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

The trial judge found that the plaintiffs were entitled to injunctive relief and issued a sweeping permanent injunction restraining “the Congress of Racial Equality, and John Doe and Mary Doe and each of them and their officers, agents, servants, employees, and attorneys, and those persons in active concert or participation with them from * * * financing, sponsoring, encouraging or engaging in meetings or any other activities whereby violations are suggested, advocated or encouraged.”1 The defendants appeal, urging, among other contentions, that the injunction is so broad as to abridge, by prior restraints, their freedom of speech. We do not reach that issue. We reverse the case with directions to dismiss for failure of the plaintiffs to show a federal cause of action upon which relief may be granted.

I.

There is clearly no diversity jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C.A. § 1332 stipulates that

“The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of all civil actions where the matter in controversy exceeds the sum or value of $10,000, exclusive of interest and costs, and is between — (1) citizens of different states * *

In the first place, the complaint fails to allege the jurisdictional amount. The [58]

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Bluebook (online)
323 F.2d 54, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 4239, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/congress-of-racial-equality-v-clemmons-ca5-1963.