The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1910-11-25
JUDGE UPnOLDS
SUPREME Law
United States Circuit Court
Stands by Constitution.
THE TWO STATES IN QUESTION
Scheme to pisfranehise the coIored
Citizens Of Annapolis, Nd, Given
Black Eye by Justice Thomas J.
Morris, Who Bases His Decision on
the Fifteenth Amendment.


The United States circuit courts for
Maryland and Oklahoma have each re.
Gently passed upon disfranchisement
laws aimed at the Negro. The court in
Maryland dealt stunning blow to the
scheme to disfranchise the colored
voters Of the state, particularly so in
Annapolis, where registration was re-
fused colored men under the grand
father clause in the election laws for
Annapolis. 3
The court also rendered an elaborate
opinion in which the Negroes right to
vote under the fifteenth amendment
was upheld. The Oklahoma case was
the result Of the recently adopted con-
stitutional amendment which disfran-
chises $4,000 voters in that state.
The case in Maryland was brought
by three colored men, William H. How
ard, ]. B. Anderson ahd George Brown,
claiming damages for being denied
registration. The defendants counsel
brought a demurrer to the suit, which
was overruled by Judge Thomas j.
Morris in decision which squarely
faces the question of race disfranchise-
ment.
Judge Morris in his decision said:
at is supposable that a property quail
ification might, in fact, resui In some
localities in all Negroes. being excluded,
and the same might be the result in
some localities from an educational
test, and it could not be said, although
that was the result intended, that II
was a discrimination on account of
race or color, but would be referable to
a different test BY looking at the con-
stitution and laws of Maryland prior to
Jan. l, 1869, how can It be said with
any show Of reason that any but the
white man could vote then, and how
can the court colse its eyes to the
obvious fact that 1t Is for that reason
solely that the test is inserted in the
Maryland acts?
"The fifteenth amendment provides
expressly that all citizens Of the United
States otherwise qualified should be
entitled and allowed to vote at all cleo
tons In any state, territory, county,
city, without distinction Of race or
color, any constitution. law, custom.
usage or regulations Of any state to the
contrary Notwithstanding"
The Oklahoma case was an applica-
ton for writ of injunction of Daniel
Simons of Guthrie restraining an cleo
ton official from denying him the
right to vote. In deciding against Mr..
Simons the court said:
'It Is ordered that the application
for an interlocutory injunction be and
the same is hereby denied. not on the
ground that section of article 3 Of
the constitution Of Oklahoma at the
election in August, 1910, is not in VIC
lation Of the constitution Of the Unit
ed States, but on the sole ground that,
although the complainant may have
remedy at law in this court for tie
deprivation Of his vote, this court has
no jurisdiction in equity to grant him
the relief he seeks from the threatened
deprivation Of that right under the
decision Of the United States supreme
court in Giles versus Harris, 1s9
u. s., ATS"
The decision by the Maryland judge
will be taken to the highest court in
the land, and, as Judge Morris has
been seldom reversed, the whole ques-
ton of Negro disfranchisement may
assume a phase at variance with the
wishes Of the bourbon south.
The Oklahoma decision Is along the
line of the usual evasive way the
United States courts have had in de-
Gliding similar actions.