The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-01
Full Decision Of u. s. Supreme
Court Made Public
A POLITICAL WRONG IF ANY
Plaintiff Asks the Right to Be Regis
tered Under the Constitution of
Alabama, an instrument Which
He Alleges Is a Fraud.

Washington, April sO.-The text of the
opinion of the United States Supreme
court in the case of Jackson Giles of
Montgomery county, Alabama, versus
the board of registrars of that county,
which was delivered by Justice Holmes
last Monday, was made public today.
The opinion says that Giles negro
male adult, on behalf of himself and
5000 others similarly situated, sought, by
bills in equity. to secure registration as
voters of Montgomery county, which
had been refused, and thus test the va
lidity Of the suffrage provisions Of the
new constitution of Alabama.
Justice Holmes says it was alleged by
Giles that the refusal to register blacks
was part of a general scheme to disfran-
chise them" The Federal Circuit court
for the Middle district of Alabama dis
missed the bill for want of Jurisdiction.
1t was contended, says Justice Holmes,
that the Federal courts had jurisdiction
in equity under sections 629 and 1879 Of
the Revised Statutes, providing that
every person who, under color of
state statute, ordinance. regulation,
custom or usage, subjects or causes to
be subjected any citizen of the United
States, or other person within the juris-
diction thereof, to the deprivation Of any
rights, privileges or immunities, secured
by the constitution and laws, shall be
liable to the party injured in an action
at law, suit in equity or other proper
proceeding for redress"
Opens Whole Case.
The court said that while there might
be some objections raised on technical
grounds to the jurisdiction of the Supreme
court and of the jurisdiction in equity.
yet the court was of the opinion that
the appeal opens the whole case and
that the scope of the complaint was en-
titled to consideration He then proceeds
to announce the impossibility of granting
the relief sought, saying In explanations:
ut will be observed In the first place
that the language of section 1879 does not
extend the sphere Of equable Jurisdiction
In respect of what shall be held an appro-
pirate subject matter for that kind of re-
lief. The words are shall be liable to
the party injured in an action at law, suit
in equity or other proper proceeding for
redress They allow a suit In equity
only when that is the proper proceeding
for redress, and they refer to existing
standards to determine what is a proper
proceeding. The traditional limits of pro-
ceedings in equity have not embraced
remedy for political wrongs. Remember
ing, however, the Importance of the case,
the court has found itself unwilling to
stop short of the final consideration to be
taken into account In dlsposing of it.
These were summarized as follows:
The Case Summarized.
"The plaintiff alleges that the whole
registration scheme of the Alabama con-
stitution is fraud upon the constitution
of the United States and asks us to de-
clare it void. But, of course he could
not maintain a bill for a mere declaration
In the air. He does not try to do SO,
but asks to be registered as a party I'M
der the void instrument. If then we
accept the conclusion which 1t is the chief,
purpose of the bill to maintain, how caA
we make the court a party to the unlaw-
full scheme by accepting it and adding
another vote to it's fraudulent lists? If
white man came here on the same gen.
eral allegations, admitting his sympathy
with the plan but alleging some special
prejudice that had kept him off the list.
we hardly should think it necessary to
meet him with a reasoned answer. But
the relief cannot be varied because we
think that in the future the particular
plaintiff Is likely to try to overthrow the
scheme. If we accept the plaintiffs allie
cations for the purpose Of his case he
cannot complain. 1t seems to us that UNI
less we are prepared TO say that 1t Is
wrong, that all its principal allegations
are immaterial and that the registration
plan of the Alabama constitution Is valid,
we cannot order the plaintiffs name to be
registered.
Would Not Be Cured.
at is not an answer to say that II all
the blacks who are qualified according to
the letter of the instrument were regis
tered, the fraud would be cured. In the
first place there is no probability that any
way is now open In which more than a
few could be registered, but II all could
be, the difficulty could not be overcome.
If the sections of the constitution con-
corning registration were Illegal in their
inception 1t would be a new doctrine in
constitutional law that the original valid
ity could be cured by an administration
which defeated their intent.
1--WE express no opinion as to the alleg-
ed fact of their unconstitutionality beyond
saying that we are not willing to assume
that they are valid in the face of the
allegations and main object of the bill for
the purpose of obtaining relief which it
was necessary to pray in order that the
object should be secured.
1.-The other difficulty is of a different
sort and strikingly reinforces the argu-
ment that equity cannot undertake now
any more than 1t has in the past to en-
force political rights and also the sugges-
ton that state constitutions were not left
unmentioned in paragraph 1879 by acct
dent"