The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-10-06
l4TH AMENDMENT TERMED INVALID IN COURT ACTION
Success Of New Orleans Suit Would Disenfran-
 chise All Negroes
[Ry Asnnciated Preasl

'
 NEW ORLEANS, Oct. 5.--A suit at tacking the validity of the fourteenth amendment from new angle will be filed in federal district court here to- morrow in the form of Q petition seek ing to enjoin Walter l.. Cohen, negro, eomptroIler of customs of the port of New Orleans, from exercising the duties of office, according to the Times. Picayune. The action, if successful, would have the effect of disenfranchis. ing every negro in the United States.
 The petition, as published by the newspaper, charges that Cohen falsely alleged himself to De a citizen of the United States" when he took the oath to office. Ii asserts that the defend ant is not a citizen of this country but Is person of African blood and de- scent and is inherently incapable of be- ing q citizen of the United States"
 The suit Is to be brought in the name of H. Edwin BOlte, an attorney of Washington, ID. C., who according to the newspaper, declares that the grounds upon which it is based never have been the subject of decision by the courts. The petition sets forth that tllree-fourths of the states did not rat. fly the amendment nor was it adopted by the required two-thirds vote of both Houses of Congress. AIr. Bolte was quoted as saying that although ha and his associates had examined all of the more than tw0 hundred decisions of the supreme court of the United States which had to do with the amend ment in not one of them were the points raised in his action passed upon nor were they made an issue.
 The petition charges conspiracy to the authors of the amendment in Con gress and various sections are cited in an effort to show that they put the amendment into effect unlawfuIly.
 As to Cohen, the petition charges that when he took the oath of office in Washington April 10, 1924, he swore falsely to his alleged citizenship, claim ing to be a citizen under ''the provision of the alleged fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States
 The petition alleges that Article ,14 never was legally proposed by two thirds of both Houses of Congress, that it never was ratified by three-fourths of the states, that eleven states of the union at the time of the adoption of the resolution, ''cuIminating in the al- legged article 14,' were unconstitutlon- ally deprivedaaf their equal suffrage in the Senate, that six states were by coercion forced to ratify it and that Congress did without power or au- thority, unlawfully declare said amend ment to the Constitution adopted and a part of the Constitution"
 The petition then requests the is- suafice of an injunction restraining Cohen from serving further as comp troller and from drawing the salary for that office.
 Cohen, a leading republican politi, elan of Louisiana, has been a storm center ever since his nomination to the post by the late President Harding. The Senate refused confirmation on the ground that he was personally obnOx- ious to the Louisiana members of that body. President Harding then issued q recess amendment and he served sey, eral months without pay. President Coolidge later sent his nomination back to the Senate and again confirmation was denied on the, same grounds as be- fore. Upon reconsideration, however, the nomination finally was confirmed.