The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1903-03-21
The Separate Car Law.

Our distinguished morning contempora
ries received hard bump yesterday whe,
| the Supreme Court of the State of Louisiana
declared the Wilson separate law TO be
constitutional. The aforementioned con-
Temperatures when the law was penIing il,
the Legislature and after its passage, seemed
to sympathzc more with the Street Railway
Corporation than with the negro afflicted
public, but everything comes GU; all righ, in
the end, although there may be wall at
tached to the tini<, if we are permitted to
draw upon ou- French. We cannot refrain
from reproducing the following excerpt
from the editorial columns Of cur most
talented and pious friend, the picayune. 1t
will be observed that in the excerpt there is
something tina, closely approaches howl of
distress and lusty kick. Oar most es-
teemed contemporary says:
The law declared unconstitutional
by the Judge of the Second Inferior Grim
ina! Court, in case in which The prcsidcn,
and other officials of the City Railways
Company were cited into court for failure or
refusal to obey the law. When brought be
fore the inferior Criminal Court, the Judge
thereof pronounced the law unconstitutional
and dismissed the cases brought under it.
l he right of that court to decide constitu-
tlonal questions seems extremely doubtful.
II would seem mat the power to declare
such matters is confined the Supreme
Court, and the inferior tribunal has nothing
to do but to enforce the laws they stand,
otherwise any inferior magistrate might
work havoc with the statute book of the
State. Under such conditions no law would
be constitutional unless declared by the
highest tribunal, whereas under the oreii-
nary usage every law demands obedience
and enforcement until it shall be pro-
null and void by competent
auth ority.
''When the law in question was uncere-
monously kicked out of the State statutes
by the judge of an inferior court the effect
was to al'solvc all violato:s of the act from
any risks or liabilities they might have in
Cured by their share CT kicking against the
law that had met only official we'll as lay
But the effect of The decision by
the Supreme Court will be 10 revive all the
accusations and charges against reported
and they should all be held to the
'trictest responsibility. If law is for any |
good reason genera ally objectionable, steps |
should be taken to secure its repeal, but for |
aw officers and judges to trample ii under !
DOT because it may not happen to agree |
With their special notions cannot fail to have |
| most injurious effect in encouraging law
esSne>S.
The J i'm Crow act is now the law of
he land, and that settles it,
We more than anxious to shake our
oious contemporary Icy the hand, and do it
warmly. We are also more than willing to
onfabulate with him and assure him of
lis truthfulness when he sai,i, 1.-The lin
row act is nov the law of the land, and
hat settles it, This is a real expression of
pinion on the part of the Picayune and we
pPrecIatc it very much, because we do not
ct such expressions often. But may we be
ern.itted to ask why the Picayune allowed
$ temper to SO overcome its pety that it
urled its boot under the coat tails of the
nsophstlcatcd, yet gentle Judge of the
ecCnd Inferior Criminal Court? The
hoe city knows that the Judge of that
articular court '.handed down no law in
,icndlv act in order to expedite the sepa.
',e car case on Its way to the Supreme
curt of the State, where i, was determ-
led yesterday, to the entire satisfaction of
lie people of New Orleans. Our pious
'ntemporary, the Picayune, was very much
agin the iaw,' just the judge of the
econd Inferior Criminal Court showed him
If TO be, yet, to our great grief and aston I
hnent, we have detected The picayune in
( act Of booting the judiciary. Strange
ings happen in this world, but the
-angest Of them all is the most unexpected
ok administered by the pcayunc this t
ornlng. While we have profound sym | t
thy for the booted judge, we cannot re- ,
lin from shouting over the assurance of =
: Picayune that the separate car act is
low the law of the land 1
1t is a far cry to the election
L State officers, but in $