The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-01
CASE OF DAN ROGERS
TEXT OF OPINION BY JUSTICE
 HOLMES.
Decision of Lower Court Reversed by United States Supreme Court. Contended No NegroyWas
 on Grand Jury.

The full text of the opinion rendered by Justice Holmes of the United States Supreme Court reversing the case of Dan Rogers against the State of Alabama, has been received in Montgomery.
 Rogers, a, negros was convicted of mur- dering Howard, a negro. He contended that no negroes were permitted on the Grand Jury which indicted him.
 The full text of the opinion is as fol- lows:
 Dan Rogers, Plaintiff in Error vs. the State of Alabama. In error to the Su- preme Court of the State of Ala
 bama.
 This Is a writ of error to the Su- preme Court of Alabama, brought on the ground that the plaintiff in error, one Rogers has been denied the equal pro- lection of the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth amendment of the constitu- ton of the United States. Rogers was in- dicted for murder and in due time filed a motion to quash the indictment be- cause the jury commissioners appointed to select the Grand Jury excluded from the list of persons to serve as grand jurors all colored persons. although large ly in the majority of the population of the county, and although otherwise qual- filed to serve as grand jurors. solely on the ground of their race and color and OI deprived of all rights as electors in the State of Alabama by the provisions of the new constitution of Alabama. The motion alleged that the Grand Jury was composed exclusively of persons of the white race, and concluded with Veri- fication. To show the reality of the sec ond reason alleged for the exclusion Of blacks from the Grand Jury list the mo- tion, as a preliminary. alleged that the sections of the new constitution which were before this Court in Giles vs. liar ris, 1S9 U. S. 475, were adopted for the purpose and had the effect of disfran- chising all the blacks on account of their race and color and previous condition of servitude. On motion of the State this motion to quash was stricken from IIe flies. Rogers excepted, but his exceptions were overruled by the Supreme Court of the State, seemingly on the ground that the proIixity of the motion was suffi- cient to justify the action of the court below The Civil Code of Alabama pro- vides by Section 3oS6 If any pleading Is unnecessarily prolix. irrelevant. or friv- O1ous, 1t may be stricken out at the costs of the party so pleading, on motion of the adverse party
 We follow the construction impliedly adopted by the Supreme Court of Ala bama, and assume that this section was applicable to the motion. We also as- sume, as said by the court, that the qualifications of the Grand jurors are not in law dependent upon the qualifications of electors. and that any invalidity Of the conditions attached to the suffrage | could not of itself affect the validity of the indictment. But in our opinion that was not the allegation. The allegation was that the conditions saiu to be in- valid worked as reason and considera- ton in the minds of the commissioners Tor excluding blacks from the list It | may be that the allegation was super fiuous and would have been hard to prove, but 1t was not Irrelevant, for it stated motives for the exclusion which. how ever mistaken. if proved tended to SLOW that the blacks were excluded on account l of their race, as part of scheme to keep them from having any part In the ad- ministration of the government or of the ' law. The whole motion takes two pages of the printed record. of the ordinary oc- tavo size. A motion of that length, mace for the sole purpose of setting up con