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The SCHOOL BOARD OF the CITY OF NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA, and R. O. Nelson, Division Superintendent of Schools of the City of Newport News, Virginia, Appellants, v. Jerome A. ATKINS et al., Appellees; The SCHOOL BOARD OF the CITY OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA, and J. J. Brewbaker, Division Superintendent of Schools of the City of Norfolk, Virginia, Appellants, v. Leola Pearl BECKETT et al., Appellees

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit1957-07-13No. Nos. 7430, 7438
246 F.2d 325

Summary

Holding. The appeals are affirmed. The injunctive decrees prohibiting racial discrimination in school admissions are upheld, and the trial court properly denied dismissal and stay of proceedings despite the existence of the Pupil Placement Act.

The School Boards of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia appealed injunctive decrees prohibiting racial discrimination in school admissions. The appellants argued that the cases should be dismissed or stayed pending exhaustion of administrative remedies under Virginia's newly enacted Pupil Placement Act, and that a three-judge court was required because the act's constitutionality was at issue. The court rejected these arguments, finding that the Pupil Placement Act provided no adequate remedy given the school boards' fixed segregation policy and companion legislation authorizing school closures to prevent integration. The court also held that because no injunction against the act itself was sought, the case did not require a three-judge panel despite incidental constitutional questions.

The court emphasized that the injunctive decrees do not mandate racial mixing or assignment of children to particular schools. The decrees simply prohibit school officials from denying admission to otherwise qualified students based solely on race or color. The court noted that the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education does not compel integration but only forbids race-based exclusion, leaving school boards free to maintain race-neutral administrative policies and pupil assignment rules.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether the Pupil Placement Act provides an adequate administrative remedy before seeking judicial relief from racial discrimination
  • Whether a three-judge court is required when constitutional validity of a statute is incidentally raised in a motion to dismiss
  • Whether injunctive decrees forbidding race-based school admission denials comply with Brown v. Board of Education

Procedural posture

School boards appealed from injunctive decrees issued by a trial court forbidding racial discrimination in school admissions.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

PER CURIAM.

These are appeals from injunctive decrees forbidding racial discrimination in the public schools of Norfolk and Newport News, Virginia, and are controlled in all material respects by our decision in the City of Charlottesville and Arlington County cases. School Board of City of Charlottesville, Virginia v. Allen, 4 Cir., 240 F.2d 59, certiorari denied 353 U.S. 910, 77 S.Ct. 667, 1 L.Ed.2d 664. It is argued that, on the authority of Carson v. Warlick, 4 Cir., 238 F.2d 724, the cases here should be dismissed or proceedings therein be stayed until administrative remedies have been exhausted under the recent Pupil Placement Act, ch. 70, Acts of Assembly of Virginia, Extra Session 1956. As pointed out by the judge below, however, this statute furnishes no adequate remedy to plaintiffs because of the fixed and definite policy of the school authorities with re spect to segregation and because of the provisions of chapter 68 of the Acts of the Extra Session, which provide for the closing of schools and withdrawal therefrom of state funds upon any departure from this policy in any school. Orleans Parish School Board v. Bush, 5 Cir., 242 F.2d 156, 162, certiorari denied 77 S.Ct. 1380.

It is argued that the court was without jurisdiction of the cases and that only a three-judge court would have had jurisdiction because the constitutional validity of the Pupil Placement Act was involved. This question was not raised, however, in the applications for injunction, which were filed before the passage of that act and which merely sought the protection of constitutional rights in a suit for the hearing of which a court of three judges was not required. Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County, D.C., 142 F.Supp. 616. After the passage of the act motion was made to dismiss the cases on the ground that the act provided an administrative remedy which had not been exhausted. The trial judge held, as to this, that the act did not provide an adequate administrative remedy and that it was unconstitutional when considered in connection with other statutes passed at the same time and its manifest purpose. Cf. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 373-374, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 30 L.Ed. 220. As no injunction was asked or granted against the enforcement of the act or the officials charged with its enforcement, a case for the constitution of a three-judge court was not presented, even though the constitutionality of an act relied on in the motion to dismiss was involved. 28 U.S.C. § 2281; Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, D.C., 138 F.Supp. 336; Id., D.C., 138 F.Supp. 337, 341, affirmed 5 Cir., 242 F.2d 156, 164-165, certiorari denied 77 S.Ct. 1380. For like reason, there is no occasion to stay proceedings pending action by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia on a case involving the validity of the act.

It should be noted that the decrees appealed from do not require the assignment of children to particular schools nor do they require mixing of races in any school. They merely forbid defendants from refusing to admit plaintiffs to any school solely on account of race or color. The operative language of the decrees is as follows:

“1. That the defendants, and each of them, their successors in office, agents, representatives, servants, and employees, be, and they hereby are, restrained and enjoined from refusing, solely on account of race or color, to admit to, or enroll or educate in, any school under their operation, control, direction or supervision, directly or indirectly, any child otherwise qualified for admission to, and enrollment and education in, such school.”

In construing very similar language used in his decree in the Arlington case, Judge Bryan used the following language which was quoted by us in our opinion on appeal (240 F.2d at page 62) :

“It must be remembered that the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States in Brown v. Board of Education, 1954 and 1955, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 and 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083, do not compel the mixing of the different races in the public schools. No general reshuffling of the pupils in any school system has been commanded. The order of the Court is simply that no child shall be denied admission to a school on the basis of race or color. Indeed, just so a child is not through any form of compulsion or pressure required to stay in a certain school, or denied transfer to another school, because of his race or color, the school heads may allow the pupil, whether white or Negro, to go to the same school as he would have attended in the absence of the ruling of the Supreme Court. Consequently, compliance with that ruling may well not necessitate such extensive changes in the school system as some anticipate.”

That language is applicable to the cases before us, as is the closing language of our opinion in that case wherein we said:

“The decrees here are not harsh or unreasonable but merely require that the law be observed and discrimination on the ground of race be eliminated. The Arlington decree expressly states that local rules as to assignment to classes, so long as such rules are not based on race or color, are to be observed, and that administrative remedies for admission to schools must be exhaust ed before application is made to the court -for relief on the ground that its injunction is being violated. While the Charlottesville decree does not contain this express provision, the provision is so eminently reasonable that we may safely assume that enforcement of that decree will not proceed upon different principles.” Affirmed.