Davis v. Gallinghouse

246 F. Supp. 208, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7139
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedSeptember 30, 1965
DocketCiv. A. No. 15910-B
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 246 F. Supp. 208 (Davis v. Gallinghouse) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Gallinghouse, 246 F. Supp. 208, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7139 (E.D. La. 1965).

Opinion

FRANK B. ELLIS, District Judge.

On August 6, 1965, the President signed into law the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Public Law 89-110). On August 11, 1965, A. P. (Tim) Gallinghouse, Registrar of Voters of Orleans Parish (hereinafter sometimes referred to as the ■“Registrar”) announced that his office would begin complying with the Voting Rights Act; at the same time he filed suit challenging the constitutionality of that act.1

In the present suit, filed August 31, 1965, plaintiffs, allegedly representing all Negroes qualified to register to vote in Orleans Parish, level a shotgun complaint at the defendants, Galling-house, Governor John J. McKeithen, and the members of the State Board of Registration. Trial of the matter was held September 9, 13, 14 and 15, 1965. The court dismissed Governor McKeithen from the suit in his capacity as Governor, while retaining the Registration Board, one of whose members is the Governor.2

The background circumstances giving rise to the present suit are as follows: subsequent to the passage of the Voting Rights Act, large numbers of prospective registrants appeared at the Registration Office and formed long lines waiting to get into the office; Because of the requirement that registrants document identity and residence, members of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance patrolled the lines checking the documents of prospective registrants to see if they were in order. If not in order, the ministers would send the registrant home to get the proper papers, saving his place in line so that when he returned he would not have to wait in line again. If a person entered the Registrar’s office and there was told that his documents were not in order, he, after returning from home with the proper documents, would be escorted into the office ahead of the line, thus causing him no further delay.

Sifting through plaintiffs’ allegations, proof and argument, these main charges emerge:

I. That the Registrar has, in the application of the rules of his [211]*211office concerning identification and proof of residence, discriminated against Negroes?
II. That the Registrar has, even if on a non-discriminatory basis, deliberately slowed down the registration process, thereby discouraging prospective Negro registrants, by demanding unlawful and unreasonable proof of residence and engaging in other slow-down practices;
III. That even if present registration requirements are lawful and non-discriminatorily applied, these requirements, which the Registrar initiated early in his tenure of office, differ from the requirements in effect in earlier years when discrimination against Negroes was prac- , ticed and thereby must be struck down under the “freeze-out” doctrine approved in Louisiana v. United States, 380 U.S. 145, 85 S.Ct. 817, 13 L.Ed.2d 709 (1965).

I. DISCRIMINATION

As to the first charge, there is simply no proof in the record of discriminatory application of the registration requirements. Plaintiffs made many grave charges, but did not offer the proof to support them.3 The complaint alleges discrimination since August 11, 1965. The Court is well aware that, in the past, there was discrimination against Negroes in the registration process. But plaintiffs’ present suit needs more than an ipse dixit to prevail. Orleans Parish is not one in which the statistics of voter registration alone demand a finding of discrimination.4 The registration figures since August II, 1965, are as follows:

August 11 to September 7 (start of this trial)
Literates
Illiterates
Total
Whites
579
28
607
Negroes
5317
1442
6759
5896
1470
7366
August 11 to September 24 5
Literates
Illiterates
Total
Whites
1738
54
1792
Negroes
8353
2075
10428
10,091
2129
12,220

Since the statistics do not indicate discrimination there must be some other form of substantial proof made. In finding that there has been no discrimination against Negroes in the registration process since August 11, 1965, this Court does not feel it is shutting its eyes “to what all others than we can see and [212]*212understand,” 6 but rather is making an analytic finding in accord with reality and the evidence.

There was no evidence introduced into the record of the total number of people turned away for lack of adequate documentation of residency. The fact that the Registrar’s office does not keep such records does not relieve plaintiffs of the burden of producing testimony from those who were allegedly turned away. The ministers in the hall would have been aware of any such people, and plaintiffs’ counsel could readily have produced them.

The proof is that both whites and Negroes would be sent away if documentation was inadequate. There was testimony from one Negro man indicating he may have had adequate documents and was turned away. Four days of trial elicited only this single illustration of one possibly qualified Negro who was not accepted. Where there is a general policy for all, Negro and white, then there is no discrimination because of race where there are isolated cases of people who do not receive identical treatment.7 In fact, plaintiffs’ own witness, a Negro minister who checked the documents of prospective registrants in the hall, testified that the Registrar’s office was operated on a non-discriminatory basis.8

Plaintiffs contend that because a flexible standard as to what constitutes sufficient documentation of residence is used, discrimination can be practiced under the guise of applying the standard. But the standard here is not a patently objectionable one, such as a “constitutional interpretation” test, and although flexible standards, fair on their face, have been struck down in other cases because of discrimination worked, or workable, under them,9 there has here been no showing that the residency documentation requirement has been used unfairly. The Board of Registrars circulated a suggested list of documents that may be used to properly support residence.10 The Registrar modified that list and adopted instead a generally less strict standard.

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Related

Fontham v. McKeithen
336 F. Supp. 153 (E.D. Louisiana, 1971)
Shultz v. Arnheim & Neely, Inc.
324 F. Supp. 987 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
246 F. Supp. 208, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-gallinghouse-laed-1965.